The Butterfly Effect: Chains of Woe
by YFernzdark
Summary: It is believed that, if someone steps on a butterfly that was not meant to die today, a million people will die in the future. Naruto's naivete is that butterfly. Cross posted from AO3.
1. Obituary: Mofuko Shiro

A single change upset the entire timeline. A simple change that altered the history of events that led to the final sealing of Ootsutsuki Kaguya, and everyone suddenly had a different part to play.

For, you see, a certain Umino Iruka had passed out. And instead of a certain blonde coming to his rescue due to heightened emotional connection, the blonde surfaced out of obligation.

"Even lay a finger on Iruka sensei, and I'll kill you."

Uzumaki Naruto was certainly not a normal boy by any standard. An orphan with not even a most distant relative to care for him, the young boy had grown up wild, completely alien to any concept of familial bonds or love, yet craving it all the same. Despite having the hand of the village head, Sarutobi Hiruzen, over his wellbeing, none had reached out to guide him, or even encourage him.

Hell, barring getting beaten up, there as not much this village had left to show that they hated him. In a sense, his life in the village was what others would perhaps call a 'personal hell'. Yet, he labored on, eager to one day prove that he was worth their respect. This… did not seem to deter the village in the slightest from hating him, however.

Prior to today, however, he hadn't known why they acted the way they did. He knew that they'd rather see him die than take another breath, even though he could not recall what he had done to personally deserve such ire. He remembered asking people many times, only to either be ignored or have things thrown at him in return. As far back as he could remember, all he could recall was loneliness and tears. The latter, however, he never let a single person see.

"You? What are you going to do to me, Demon?" Mizuki laughed, not even slightly tensed. To his credit, however, he did not know the threat looming under the surface.

Of course, he knew that somewhere buried deep within the jinchuuriki in front of him was undiluted hate due to circumstance, which could even perhaps be amplified by now through the presence of the nine-tailed demon fox. His lord, Orochimaru Sama, had commanded him to either eliminate the container, or unearth the rage within. He could see the benefit, either rob the village of their weapon or see their own weapon turned against them entirely, thus making it easier for the man to exact his own revenge. And who better to do that than his second-best spy Mofuko Shiro? Second only to Kabuto, Shiro hailed from the now extinct Mofuko clan of Kirigakure, who had been rescue from the village by his lord. Granted, his lord had hurt him more than any single person had ever done, but he was assured it was all for his benefit. And indeed, where the Mofuko clan was only able to transform their faces once, Shiro had been altered to such an extent that he could take on entirely different forms, be they of person, animal, or even plant. His lord Orochimaru had then dispatched him as a spy into Konoha's ranks. First, as the ANBU Suzume, then as shopkeeper Figo Akishi, and most recently as the kind but irritable orphan academy teacher, Mizuki. Shiro had been sending reports to his Orochimaru sama for at least two years now, and this was meant to be the final mission, brining in the scroll.

Naruto, however, was seeing red. There was that word again, 'Demon'. Why did everyone accuse him of being one? Bar Hokage-jiji and Iruka sensei, everyone either openly hated him or ignored him. Sure, the Kyuubi was sealed in him, but that did not make him the kyuubi himself!

Deep within Naruto's seal, a small line blurred, the matrix overloading slightly with Naruto's heightened agitation. Alongside the biggest circle that symbolized the nine-tails, one of the two small circles seemingly melted, being absorbed into Naruto's skin like water through sponge.

Fine! If that's what they wanted him to be, if that's all they saw in him, Naruto would be exactly that! No longer would he try his best to be acknowledged positively, no longer would he be that same old naïve boy! He is Uzumaki Naruto, and suddenly, his entire worldview changed with that simple decision.

He gasped, however, when he felt something whirl past him. In his thought process, he failed to keep an alert eye on 'Mizuki'. The man was obviously not going to let this chance slip by – both to wipe out witnesses and to enrage the demon-container more. The man has smirked, before unsealing another Fuuma Shuriken, charging it with a spin, and hurling it towards the downed man a few ways behind Naruto.

When the poor boy turned, he gasped, and tears finally brimmed over his eyes and fell to the unforgiving forest floor.

The shuriken had impaled his teacher in the chest, a blade popping out from his back. The man himself seemed shocked, looking down at the weapon with wide eyes, before he fell.

Naruto rushed to the man, catching him just before he hit the ground with a slide, the scroll of seals falling off and dispersing, proving that it was either a transformed pebble or a timed illusion. Shiro's eyes narrowed, and, unknown to him, so did another set of eyes above them all.

Slit yellow eyes seethed in anger, knowing now that the final component for his specialized jutsu was forever beyond his reach. 'If he was intuitive enough to leave out a fake scroll, then he will never let it see daylight again.' The man thought, grinding his teeth in irritation. 'That darn brat! That old man would never guess I was after it, not after so many years – this boy must have told him!' When he spotted what was going on beneath him, however, he smirked. 'Well, at least this trip won't be entirely wasted.' He then made a sign with his hands, and focused a brief pulse of energy between Naruto and Iruka.

Down, beneath the canopy of the trees, none of the three men heard a mere whisper of, "Genjutsu: Nise no Kashaku!". Two of them were too focused on the last. Seemingly dead for one second, Iruka suddenly jerked, gasping for air. He panted deep breaths, and looked at Naruto. "Naruto…"

"Don't talk, sensei!" Naruto said through sniffles. "I'll get you to the hospital right away!"

"No…" Iruka said, and Naruto froze. "I don't want… a demon… to save me…."

"I- Iruka sensei?" Naruto asked, his heart dropping. 'No….'

"I… always hated… you, Naruto." The man seemed to say. "You… took my parents… away. I… never loved… you, you… damned demon. I hope you… die."

The man then collapsed again, eerily into the very same position he was before his sudden bout of wakefulness.

Naruto just stared at the man he had considered his older brother. In more ways than one, Iruka had been what was keeping him grounded to the world, tethered to reality. Naruto had even recently debating whether he had feelings for the older man. Damnit, Iruka was what made him happy!

And now…

All that was a lie.

Iruka… no… Umino was a liar.

Naruto shakily stood. How many had lied to him? Did no one ever like him? Was Hiruzen and the Ichirakus lying to him too? Why? He wasn't the Kyuubi! What had he done wrong?!

That is when the Nandaime Hokage died before even his ascension, and instead, something much less benevolent stepped forth from the darkest recesses of the mind of a boy – a young boy, a naïve boy, an innocent boy.

A boy who locked away everything he was, and threw the key into the ocean.

"Show me what you got, kyuubi no kitsune!" Shiro snarled, drawing the boy's attention. ready to phase into a stronger form. He had heard what Iruka had said, and was frankly surprised He always believed that Iruka truly loved the boy, but… well, he turned out to be a good actor.

"I… am not the Kyuubi no Kitsune." Naruto said, head bowed.

Shiro narrowed his eyes. "What are you-"

"I am the Konohagakure no Akuma."

Shiro felt something… just _something_. He decided to dodge-

But he never got that chance, because he suddenly felt something punch him in his chest.

Surprised, and feeling blood fall from his slightly open mouth, he looked down towards his chest to see a glowing orange chain had impaled him. He followed the taut chakra construct towards the palm of the demon brat's outstretched right hand, when his eyes widened in realization.

"Im…possi…ble…" he said hoarsely, mind clouded with pain, before giving into the blackness.

However, that was not all that Sarutobi Hiruzen witnessed through his crystal ball that gave him chills that night.

"Fuinkusari" Naruto whispered, but his voice carried over the slight breeze around him nonetheless, "Shohi Suru."

An unearthly male cream rent the air, as the chain embedded in Shiro retracted, dragging along a white silhouette reminiscent of the man's outline. Then rapidly, the chain retracted, until even the silhouette was sucked into Naruto's palm.

All was silent for a few seconds, until Naruto abruptly passed out.

Seeing that, Hiruzen shook himself out of his daze and immediately leapt out of the window, intent on bringing Naruto to his office immediately, before the poor boy was killed in blind misinformation by his subordinates. Sometimes, he wished people were different.

Meanwhile, Naruto dreamt.

He dreamt of running, of fleeing home _home_ _ **home**_ because he would die otherwise. He dreamt of finding a twisted angel, who gave him so much pain _pain_ _ **pain**_ that he would rather die than feel that again. But then, after the ordeal was finished, he had so much power _power_ _ **power**_ , that he felt like no one could ever feel him near when he struck ever again.

Then, in an explosion of colors, he remembered other things.

He remembered learning to walk on walls, on water. He remembered learning to wade through the earth. He remembered raising earth walls, making earth doppelgangers. He remembered feeling as weightless as the very air itself.

But most of all, he remembered changing _changing_ _ **changing**_.

He remembered flying through the sky as a bird, swimming in deep oceans as a whale, racing around as a leopard, hopping around as a bunny, spying on people as a mosquito…

He remembered everything, and only a fleeting thought told him it wasn't his own memories.

It was Mizuki's recollection. Or was it Shiro? Yes, most of the memories had the Shiro Marker rather than Mizuki. He Naruto was surprised to find several other names, all jumbled. The original Mizuki, a steadfastly loyal ninja, was probably rolling in his unmarked grave with all the misdeeds this imposter had committed in his name, however secretively.

Besides memories, however, he was also sifting through something else.

It was something akin to two twisting lines, connected by several other lines of their own. Through Shiro's memories, he learnt this was called deoxyribonucleic acid, a sort of blueprint for the person one is. A particular line, however, piqued his interest. The line was constantly changing, morphing in different colors. This type of line, however, seemed prevalent every thirty or so lines later. Naruto analyzed he line and then reached out with his mind and assimilated it, unknowingly doing something a certain snake sannin would die to do without having to have ever resorted to crude measures as he had.

He copied Mizuki's abilities and bloodline.

Hiruzen looked upon the boy on his office table with barely concealed anxiousness. Yamanaka Inoichi had informed him that Mizuki's memories were completely gone – the Shintenshin no Jutsu was completely ineffective. Normally, when used on a dead target, the jutsu showed the most recent memories, however when the jutsu showed no results, it only meant one thing – there _were_ no memories to show.

This meant that Naruto had awoken the Uzumaki bloodline, the Fuinkusari – otherwise known as sealing chains. This was already evidenced by his blond hair morphing into the natural Uzumaki blood-red before his very eyes. The bloodline was at the heart of the Uzumaki reign and longevity – it allowed the user to absorb the impression of someone's yin and yang chakra, effectively copying not only their memories and chakra, but also their bloodline and lifeforce as well. However, the sealing technique had a physical impression as well, able to interact with physical objects and, thus, able to be used in real life scenarios to enhance combat and locomotive capability.

Uzumaki Kushina was infamous for their use, using them after they awakened during the kidnapping attempt she was victim of to become a feared kunoichi. Where the Yondaime was hated in Iwa for his decimation of a quarter of the entire Iwagakure and Kumogakure joint forces by himself, Uzumaki Kushina was why they hadn't retaliated. Already having failed an attempt once at possessing her, Kumo faced another severe blow when Kushina consumed a high ranking Kumo Sofuki, which is essentially the Kumo version of the ANBU, and unleashed their own techniques against them with help of the Kyuubi's initial jinchuuriki state resulting in the loss of half of Kumo's ninja force, since Iwa had made a hasty retreat.

Hiruzen was interrupted from his thoughts when Naruto suddenly bolted awake and dry heaved, retching on bare air. Hiruzen made to help the boy, but he was held at bay with a raised hand. Naruto coughed badly for another minute or so, before abruptly stopping with a loud burp.

Hiruzen arched an eyebrow, while internally anxious.

Naruto looked at his surroundings, then hopped off the table he was laid on, turning to the Hokage and bowing respectfully. "Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen sighed. It seemed that Kushina was right, absorbing the memories of someone also resulted in absorbing personality. It seemed Mizuki's true personality and Naruto's own meshed together to form this amalgam. "Rise, Naruto-kun." Naruto stood, and Hiruzen had to work hard to conceal his grandfatherly tendencies. Naruto's once blue irises were now blazing orange, and his sclera a pitch black. His pupils seemed to be shining from within with a bright yellow light. "Your eyes…."

Naruto cocked his head to the side and then closed his eyes in concentration, opening them to reveal his old cerulean-blue eyes. Hiruzen frowned. "It seems, gaki, that you have awoken a dojutsu."

"Not exactly, Hokage sama." Naruto said, dipping his head a little in apology to the contradiction. "The Mofuko kekkei genkai leaves its users with these eyes naturally, as the line first began when an ancestor gave birth while in chameleon sage mode. These eyes are simply a reminder of that very fact."

When the Sandaime gaped, Naruto gave off a frustrated sound and gestured to the Hokage's tea, urging the man to continue drinking before beginning to explain what he learnt from Shiro's memories.

When Naruto finally left bearing a black-cloth hitai-ate, with the use of a soundless shushin that left no trace, Hiruzen fell into a meditative thinking state until Inu and Neko emerged from the shadows a few hours later.

"To think that Suzume was a spy…" Neko began, fists clenched.

"Don't dishonor him that way." Inu chastised. "Suzume was an ANBU for longer than seven years, while this imposter only emerged recently. Your mentor is still untainted! I can only imagine the fight he must have put up, being a master of his trade. May he rest in peace."

"Inu is correct." Hiruzen said, and the two ANBU agents straightened when they recognized his Hokage voice. "As of now, summon Tora and Hebi. They have an important delivery to make to a certain toad who has been out of his pond for too long."

Inu almost shuddered but restrained himself. He was just glad he wasn't going with Hebi on this one.

"As for you, Inu, you may remove your mask." The Sandaime commanded.

Inu sighed, and smoothly slid his mask off, revealing a half facemask further below that one and an eyepatch covering his left eye. "I know I agreed to be a Jonin for the Uchiha, Hokage sama, but I'll be damned if you keep me away from Naruto after today an-"

"I was going to suggest he be on your team, Kakashi." Hiruzen said, setting his chin on his clasped hands. "While Naruto has certainly changed, especially if what we know about the Uzumaki Fuinkusari from Kushina is true, he will still need moral guidance and a gentle hand when it comes to guiding him on using this newfound gift, not to mention putting into practice what he… assimilates. Currently, he has more reason than anyone to leave the village, and you very well know what actions the council will resort to if this comes to pass."

Kakashi seemed lost for words, and soft chuckles could be heard from behind the cat mask Neko wore. The Sandaime sighed, before standing and walking to the window that gave him a view of Konoha and the Hokage Mountain. How many sacrifices had he made for this village? How much had Naruto suffered to maintain the illusion of peace? Sometimes he wished Danzo and he were back like what they used to be – rivals, but rivals who helped each other. Now, thy were simply enemies. The Professor and the war Hawk… both poised over the village like common thugs over loot. But where Hiruzen wanted to protect his village, Danzo wanted to…

Now was not the time.

"Since his grades have been abysmal, making him the dead last, I do not believe this will be an issue. The Rookie of the Year with the academy dead last… we could add in the Academic of the year to make it more believable." Hiruzen continued. "Haruno Sakura, I believe."

Kakashi's single visible eye bugged out. "Haruno?! Granddaughter of Haruno Nisha?! She enrolled? I'm surprised her parents let her."

"I do not know how she pulled it off either, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth." Hiruzen said, a smile tugging on his lips although he fought to stay in serious mode. "Most of the ANBU and Jonin know exactly how much Ichigo hates his mother for dying in the middle of a battle, no matter if anyone else knew her identity or not. I believe being a father softened his heart to his daughter's ambitions, even if he disliked his mother being the shinobi world's genjutsu mistress, so much so, that no one but her husband, son, and I knew exactly what her face looked like."

Kakashi sighed, dropping his head in thought. "We'd be the perfect frontline time if all things pass ideally. Sasuke, once broken out of his current phase, could be a potential taijutsu combat master, especially using his Sharingan to predict and copy. Naruto, having such high reserves and near limitless potential, could be a ninjutsu powerhouse. Sakura, falling into her ancestor's footsteps, a genjutsu user with no rival, especially so since Haruno Nisha had married into the family from the Kurama Clan. These three together _could_ just be the next big deal."

"Which is the reason you need to be careful, Kakashi." Hiruzen said finally turning away from the window and looking at the copy-nin dead in the eyes. "They have untapped potential, but potential goes both ways. I can't have you holding back when I'm handing such resources to you on a silver platter." He then sighed, and retook his seat. "However, they still are children, so be careful to gauge their limits. And act accordingly. While you yourself are an exceptional ninja, you have never before taught children of this age after… that incident. Just be careful."

Kakashi nodded solemnly, making a promise to himself not to slack off.

"Now then, that is all. Kakashi, prepare for the Team selections in one week. You are only allowed to be late on the first day." The Hokage said, smirking. Neko let something out that sounded suspiciously like a cough. "I want a rough report on each week's activities on my desk every Saturday, and I definitely want to be notified if Sasuke or Sakura awaken their bloodline, or Naruto assimilates another ninja. Am I understood?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Kakashi said, tilting his head in acquiesce.

"Good. Dismissed." Hiruzen said, thoughts drifting to Naruto, and wondering where he was at the moment. He only hoped the personality merge had not corrupted the boy beyond help.

Meanwhile, on top of the head of the Yondaime at the fabled Hokage monument, if one were to look closely, they would see a figure sitting.

Immediately after talking with the Hokage, he had sneaked into a shinobi clothing store and stolen an ensemble. Now garbed in a sleeveless red unzipped hoodie over a bare torso, black knee length cargo shorts, and black shinobi sandals, Naruto stared at the orange clothes of his past, folded next to him. His new black cloth konoha hitai-ate held his jacket in place, being tied though the edge of the seams of the zipper sides, leaving a gap the size of the metal plate. A black version of his goggles was firmly secured over his eyes.

He had spent hours wandering through the village before that action. He spent hours remembering every interaction he had with those he deemed 'friendly', or even 'civil'. Were they all lying to him? Was he forever destined to be toyed with, lied to, and cheated?

The young boy stood, and sniffed once. He gazed out over the village he once called home, deciding it truly wasn't worth the effort to reverse his fame entirely and get them to acknowledge him, no. If everyone lied to him, why should he bother?

He wiped his eyes dry. 'No more.' He thought, expression morphing from agonized to stony. 'What I said in the forest was purely heat of the moment, but I meant it. This village has given me nothing but pain, so I will not bother. In fact, I'll give them pain right back.'

With a throw that seems well rehearsed, he flung the tracksuit and goggles into the air, and sent an exploding tag attached to a kunai straight at it.

There was a soft yet fiery explosion, and he could see burning strips of orange cloth drift down towards the village below.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto whispered, unshed tears glinting in his unblinking eyes as he stared at the clothes that was once a part of his identity. "And I swear to myself, I will find out the truth, be it as an angel... or a demon."


	2. Obituary: Possibilities

The very next day after the Shiro debacle, Hokage-sama called him in the office and told him to take a new picture than that of his academy application for his Ninja Genin license. Now, Naruto was by no means prepared for that, believing he was to be failed in the exam. Thus, the kind old man had it taken right at once, to give Naruto as less a hassle as possible.

But a hassle happened anyway.

While Naruto looked over his new license card, the door to the office suddenly burst open.

"Old man!" a young voice exclaimed, and Naruto looked up from the card in interest. A boy, definitely below eight in age, had a determined expression on his face. Dressed in a yellow short-sleeved t-shirt, green cargo shorts, blue sandals and an oversized blue scarf, the spiky-haired brunette yelled "I'll kill you for your hat!" The boy then drew a wooden practice shuriken, and made to run forward-

Only to trip on his oversized scarf.

Naruto vaguely registered Hiruzen sighing in the background.

"Omago-sama!" a man's voice yelled, and the figure made to move into the room. This ninja (as evidenced with the black bandana on his head that had the Konoha emblem on metal attached to the front) was dressed in standard black jonin gear without the flak-jacket, and a pair of thin-rimmed oval-lens black sunglasses.

"Blast it! Someone trapped the floor!" the boy yelled standing up. His eyes darted around, before landing on Naruto. "You! You did it, didn't you?!"

Naruto sighed. While he had nothing against children playing games, he was not going to join in. With a "I'll be back later, Hokage-sama.", he stood.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" the boy said, and geared up for a jump-kick to Naruto's face, which the boy caught with ease with his left hand. He raised his hand, suspending the boy by his leg.

"You gaki! Let Omago-sama down! Don't you know he's the Hokage's grandon?" the Jounin said, pointing to the Hokage, who had his fingers intertwined under his chin and eyes closed to ignore the happening.

Naruto looked from the old man, to the boy, who was smirking for some reason. Naruto shrugged. "Okay." And released his grip on the boy's ankle.

The boy yelped as his head hit the hard floor, with the jounin rushing to his aid and yelling about how 'any brat got to be a ninja nowadays'. In response, Naruto shushined out of the office.

He did not stay long enough to see the boys flash through the emotions of being impressed, awed, and then determined, but Naruto did have a horrible sense of foreboding for some reason.

Naruto sped to an alley nearby and decided to use the first day of the preparation time given to plan and meditate. But first, he walked to the memorial stone to gaze at Umino's name, and keep asking the inanimate stone mentally why did he deem it okay to lie. He then walked to the academy, sitting on the swing he had forlornly occupied just the day before, and marveled at how his entire world was turned upside down in the passage of a few hours.

Funny how that happens.

On his way to search an unused training ground for him to occupy, Naruto felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck, as if he was being watched. He turned around, and almost face-faulted when he saw someone holding up a cloth painted to look like the fence behind them, but the ripples in the cloth and the fingers that were visible holding it up gave them away.

"Is that supposed to fool anyone?" Naruto asked, almost bewildered. How could anyone-

"So you saw through my disguise." A familiar voice said, and the same brat from before put down the cloth, walking closer while folding it in. "My name is Sarutobi Konohamaru, and I want to learn the technique you used to defeat my grandfather!"

Naruto appraised the boy in front of him with glancing eyes. The boy seemed… familiar somehow, besides the obvious likeness he shared with the old man in his facial features. Maybe…

Instead of answering, Naruto turned and began walking.

"Hey! Answer me when I talk to you, dammit!" Konohamaru yelled, running to settle and walk besides Naruto.

"Why should I teach it to you?" Naruto asked, eyes forward, expression bored. "What reason do I have to hand you a technique of my own creation on a silver platter?"

Konohamaru paused at that, thinking. What can he give this boy to teach him a technique he so desperately wanted? Without defeating the old man…

"I'll tell you what." Naruto spoke up, watching the boy's expressions play out on his face with a critical eye. "Come with me to my training ground. If you answer my questions, I'll let you learn a technique."

Konohamaru's eyes lit up, and he hopped and cheered in childish glee.

After finding a training ground, which a passing chuunin pointed out as going to be assigned for future teams and thus currently unallotted, Naruto gestured for Konohamaru to sit down against a tree.

"Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions. Just answer to the best of your ability." Naruto droned, and Konohamaru nodded vigorously. "Why did you 'attack' the old man this morning?"

Konohamaru looked away at the question and mumbled something unintelligible.

"What was that, brat?"

"Because I want to be recognized!" Konohamaru burst, almost causing Naruto to step back, but now he had better control over himself for that to happen. "Everywhere I go, people respect me and give me leeway, but not because of me, because e of my grandfather! "Omago-sama this, Omago-sama that! They never see me for myself, and only respect me because I am the Sandaime's grandson!" Konohamaru crossed his arms childishly here. "That's why I want to defeat the old man, and take his hat! When I'm the Hokage, everyone will respect me for me! They will finally acknowledge my skill!"

Naruto really tried hard. He clenched his fists, shuffled his feet, even looked away, but it proved too much and he eventually broke into wild laughter.

"Hey! What's you funny?" Konohamaru demanded.

"Oh, that's just too precious!" Naruto exclaimed, wiping his eyes. He then took a deep breath to calm down, then trained his eyes on Konohamaru, who fidgeted slightly. "Alright, brat, you want to be the Hokage. Are you fit to be one?"

"What?" Knohamaru asked, confused.

Naruto simply shook his head. "The Hokage is the leader of the village, someone why everyone looks up to, true, but being the Hokage does not give you respect – being respected makes you capable of donning the hat!"

Konohamaru froze. He had never really thought of it that way. But then… "But then, how do I get respected first?!"

Naruto smirked, inwardly nodding in approval. "You do that by becoming a capable ninja, of course."

"How does a ninja come to be 'capable'?" Konohamaru asked, completely fixed on the subjectat hand.

"Well, there are many facets to that." Naruto said, rubbing his chin. "A capable ninja is well-versed in the three main ninja arts – taijutsu, genjutsu, and ninjutsu. He or she should also be able to pull off cunning acts, since being sneaky is basically half the part of being an actual ninja. And finally, a ninja knows how to act when, and where."

"Act?" Konohamaru asked, confused. He knew about knowing jutsu, of course! And he was already cunning. But what is this about acting? "Should he be an actor, like in the theatre?"

"In a sense." Naruto nodded. "Let me explain with an example. Your grandfather, the Sandaime, is kind to you and laughs a lot, right? Maybe even lets you sit on his lap at home, or plays games with you? Essentially, he's relaxed and carefree, or at least appears to be, yes?"

Konohamaru nodded.

"Well, I'm sure you have observed him in his office." Naruto stated more than asked, but Konohamaru nodded anyway. "So, you know how he acts. What have you noticed?"

Knohamaru furrowed his brow in thought. "He acts like a completely different person sometimes. He's very serious, to-the-point, and only shows any emotion around people he knows, like Asuma-ojisan."

"Exactly." Naruto said. But at Konohamaru's still-confused visage, he sighed. "Alright, another example. If you have noticed any ninja around the village, how do they act?"

"Well," the boy began, looking to the sky in thought. "When ninjas are on duty, they seem to be more focused, concise, and seldom talk amongst themselves or make jokes. But when they're off duty… oh!"

"Exactly." Naruto said, nodding at the look of realization on Konohamaru's face. "A capable ninja should know when to focus, when to be social, when to crack jokes, and so on. You must gauge the situation, and see whether your actions fit in, or are appropriate."

Konohamaru looked to the floor dejectedly. "But, I always make jokes, and kinda lord my status around! That means I'm not a capable ninja."

Naruto smiled softly. "Well, Konohamaru, it is never too late to start."

"You used my name!" the younger boy exclaimed, looking up.

"That's because I finally have proof that you are actually capable of being a serious ninja, since you just admitted to your mistake." Naruto pointed out.

The sitting boy beamed.

"Be certain you are ready though, because on the road to being a good ninja, there are no shortcuts!" When he saw that Konohamaru had understood and nodded, he continued. "Well then, my next question." Naruto stated, then crossed his hands. "What do you know about ninjutsu?"

"Ninjutsu are awesome!" Konohamaru exclaimed, slipping into excitement. "They are special skills used my ninja to do amazing things!"

"Well, yes." Naruto agreed reluctantly, mentally sighing. "Do you know how they do it?"

"With the use of chakra, duh." Konohamaru said. "Chakra is a mixture of physical and spiritual energies, that the ninja molds together in order to perform jutsu. Any jutsu, mostly ninjutsu and genjutsu, use chakra. A ninja must be careful while using any of these arts, since if the required amount of chakra exceeds that which the ninja is capable of molding, then it can be dangerous for the ninja to perform them." He recited, then blushed at Naruto's raised eyebrow. "Ebisu sensei gave me a book on it."

Naruto nodded. "Well, does the book say what having control over chakra can do for you?"

"There was a chapter on that, but I skipped it since it looked boring." The younger boy admitted sheepishly.

Naruto was about to reprimand him, but shook his head, remembering that two days ago, any talk of theory would see him sleeping in class the next second. "Well, chakra control is extremely important. Without it, even if you have huge reserves, you'll just waste it all." He continued, shrugging. "Have you heard anything about this?"

"Well…" Konohamaru trailed, then gulped at Naruto's expectant look. "Gramps once told me about someone called Senju Tsunade, that she had extremely low reserves, but she learned to control it with amazing perfection."

"Right." Naruto said, and if he sounded a little curt, Konohamaru did not call him out on it. "In spite of initially having civilian-level reserves, and technically because of it, Senju Tsunade concentrated heavily on chakra control exercises. This not only gave her amazing control, but also served to expand her reserves. She went on to be a legendary kunoichi, famous for using medical techniques – which are impossible for average ninja to do because of their high-control requirements, but also created her own taijutsu style, which she can use to, say, destroy this entire training field with one punch."

Konohamaru gaped. "R- really?"

"Quite." Naruto nodded. "So, why do you think I spoke about chakra control?"

"Because chakra control is important to use your chakra reserves properly and expand them.' Konohamaru said.

"Right." The redhead said, then walked to the next nearby tree, and then straight up it. "This is the most basic chakra control exercise, called tree-walking. Normally, it would take an adult starting it a long time to master, but since your coils have only recently begun expanding, your amount of chakra should take half a day at most to master." Ignoring Konohamaru's gob smacked expression, Naruto looked at his watch before continuing. "This exercise depends on using chakra as an adhesive on the soles of your feet to stick to the tree. Too much, and the bark explodes outwards due to your feet pulling on more than the tree can handle. Too little, and you don't stick at all, and slip. Right now, it is 9:30. You have till today evening to get this exercise down. If you start now and get it by today, I'll teach you a jutsu."

Konohamaru looked for the longest time at Naruto, then stood, nodded determinedly, and walked to a tree to start his practice.

Naruto dropped down from the trunk of the tree, sat cross legged, and fell into meditation to sort through memories. He tuned out the sounds of Konohamaru's frustration, the feel of wind through his hair, the ground beneath him – all was ignored in favor of focusing inwards.

Sorting through other's memories were the most disorienting experience. Which there is the feeling attached that 'I have lived through this before', when you witness the memory, you find yourself in an alien recollection. At least the 'memories' and 'jutsu' were already separate, the way Naruto had absorbed them. He ignored the jutsu for now and focused on the memories. He knew the gist like the locations and people, already, but not the finer points.

Midway through the ordeal, at around 12 in the afternoon, Naruto opened his eyes when he felt a shake on his shoulder. He opened his eyes dazedly and looked upon a smirking Konnonhamaru.

"I did it, Naruto-oyabun!" Konohamaru said, excited, clearly tired and much subdued than before. He then walked to a nearby tree and then straight up it, stopping only on the highest visible branch and then sitting there, panting. "See?"

"Well-done, Konohamaru." Naruto nodded, smiling lightly. "You should go and get something to eat now, lest you fall from exhaustion."

Konohamaru jumped down from the branch, and then nodded to Naruto in thanks, which was returned. He then walked in the direction of the village proper, while Naruto himself turned to the empty training field.

"Finally. I thought he'd never leave." He sighed, then brought his hands in a cross seal. In a muted but large burst of smoke, two hundred kagebunshin formed in the clearing. "Right, you lot know what to do. Get to it."

Of the two hundred clones, four groups formed. Forty vanished immediately, set on practicing shunshin and substitution until it left not smoke at all, no sound, and incorporating an extremely minor genjutsu on the log itself to increase the delay in which the enemy would realize what happened – this would be a major feat in and of itself, since genjutsu is something Naruto would find the most challenging, considering the size of his reserves. Forty picked up a leaf each, and began to move towards the water to practice levitating the leaf on their head while walking on water, a combination chakra control exercise. Eighty set to mastering the Doton manipulation exercise, all three levels – the branch hardening exercise (which involved charging a thick branch with Doton chakra so that it could not be torn no matter how much one tried), the tissue hardening exercise (the same thing, but with tissue paper), and finally the multiple rock levitation exercise (which involved levitating multiple rocks by charging them with Doton chakra and keeping the rocks afloat by continuously manipulating the Doton chakra within). The final forty set to creating a taijutsu style that revolves around using clones to substitute themselves to take hits and appear behind the opponent.

Naruto himself, instead of returning to meditation (which was the reason he found out about the secret of the kagebunshin in the first place), he set to morphing into different animals. The process of morphing was not as jarring as he would have dreaded. He had an instinctual grasp over his appendages, either from the bloodline itself, or from Shiro's memories. He morphed into different creatures – a tiger, a frog, a crocodile, a stag, and finally ended in a raven that took to the air and flew, reveling in this newfound sense of freedom.

Meanwhile, in the Hokage tower, a certain old man was gazing at his crystal ball in clear anxiety. The old leader was… concerned, to say the least. He did not know the intricacies of what Mofuko Shiro knew, nor did he have the heart to ask his adoptive grandson. The implications of such memories… and under Orochimaru, no less! The man was infamous for his brutality. What would reliving those emotions do to Naruto? He watched the black-feathered bird fly away with sad eyes, longing to be able to help him but not knowing how.

In the six days between that and the team assignments day, the redhead continued to train. Having sorted through large amounts of knowledge and memories, he set to practicing what jutsus Shiro knew. Bloodlines would come as easy to him as breathing, however, standard jutsus he would have to practice getting familiar with again. Now armed with the knowledge-transfer secret of the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, this was laughably easy. For six days, the boy made two hundred bunshin each day, practicing in any training ground that was empty.

After the first day, he altered the responsibilities of each clone group. The first forty, he set to mastering chakra control. Shiro's training motto was that despite having a large arsenal of doton jutsus, large reserves of chakra were useless unless one could control it efficiently. This, the Mofuko had learned from a genjutsu user under Orochimaru's wing, Hakumon no Tayuya. Despite having low genin reserves, her control was so perfectly honed that she had no trouble continuously casting genjutsu for a day straight. Thus, of the forty clones, ten practiced the tree walking exercise with leaf levitation, ten practiced the water walking exercise with leaf levitation, ten did the kunai balancing exercise on top of water, and the remaining were on standby, as those clones who learned something from the training or made any substantial progress were to dispel to give everyone that advantage. The result of this was that, by the end of the weak, Naruto had mastered these exercises, and now was at a beyond-acceptable level of control of his chakra. He recognized, however, that his reserves meant that he'd have to do such exercises (or put his clones on it) at least every few days. Unless he found better exercises, however, he would not improve even if he combined the exercises in a different way – this was a drawback of utilizing the Kage bunshin to further his training. Exploiting the memory transfer ability so many times meant that he could now do them on an instinctual level, negating any challenge further combining the exercises could give him.

The next forty set to practicing the doton ninjutsus that Shiro knew. To Naruto's intrigue, even his strong doton affinity was transferred over. Ten of the clones practiced the Doton: Dochu Senko, ten practiced the Doton: Keijugan no Jutsu, ten practiced the Doton: Kajugan no Jutsu, and the last ten the Doton: Doryuujoheki. After mastering these in the first two days, Naruto used the same team of clones to master the Doton: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, and the Doton: Iwa Bunshin no Jutsu. Naruto had not mastered them, in the end, but was sure close on utilizing them in combat.

This was the job of eighty of the other clones, finding uses for their jutsus in combat. What use was having a jutsu when you could not do it with subtlety, or even use it for more than one direct application when your life was threatened? The forty clones improved their taijutsu in the first three days it took for him to master the first three techniques, realizing that the capability to fly in combat or the capability to enhance the force of your blows or petrify others changed your arsenal entirely – especially when it came to direct confrontation with taijutsu or simple maneuverability, in combat or out of it. His favorite Doton jutsu, however, would have to be the Doton: Dochu Senko. It just made him feel euphoric, having control underground, knowing that unless he gave away his position, or manage to botch his plans, no one would even think to look for him there, while his Kage and Iwa Bunshin took care of his opponents – especially so with the restraining capability of the Doton: Kage Bunshin and the attack capability of the Iwa bunshin. Essentially, as long as he was above half of his monstrous reserves, he decided to never leave the underground at all during the fight.

However, the euphoria of this exploration was shadowed by the fact that the Naruto collective could not bring forth the chains he had used against Shiro. After numerous failed attempts, he theorized that the bloodline was only activated under extreme emotional stress, something he could not purposely replicate.

The last forty worked on miscellaneous jutsu, like the minor genjutsu, and the Kawarimi. Knowing a jutsu and mastering them were two completely different things – knowing a jutsu gave the ability to cast it at high costs, but mastering the jutsu gave the ability to cast them at low costs and without hand-signs, effectively giving the user a major advantage. Thus, he continued his foray into mastering jutsu even when he got them to work to be able to exploit this advantage in combat.

Meanwhile, the real Naruto sorted through Shiro's memories and educated Konohamaru. The Sannin Orochimaru seemed like a major threat, and knowing all he did about him only seemed like a possible advantage that he would be stupid to throw away. Additionally, Shiro had almost memorized the latest editions of the bingo books from all the countries, was intimately familiar with doton jutsu theory, and his tactical mind was… significant, to say the least. After first going through the various subterfuge tactics he used, Naruto was extremely thankful to lady luck for being able to take down such a powerful opponent at his old pathetic level, as doing so gave him the catapult forward he did not even know or acknowledge he needed.

Meanwhile, the young Sarutobi clan member seemed to accept any knowledge he had like a sponge – at least at normal ninja levels. Since his reserves were way too small and not well-honed enough for a Kagebunshin, Naruto taught him the Henge and the first level of the Doton manipulation exercise. The boy himself too grew less rambunctious and more serious, despite his initial claim he could make Naruto more excitable. If only he knew…

A side-effect of this entire thing, however, was that his clones seemed to be… developing.

For instance, when he made his way back to the ninja apparel shop to steal more sets of his outfit, and he used to Kage Bunshin no Jutsu specifically to infiltrate the establishment, the clones who sprang forth and transformed into random shinobi he had seen around the village were extremely subdued and silent. Furthermore, they seemed to be the very same clones who practiced the transformation kekkei genkai, since they seemed to further work towards permanent physical alteration.

Naruto did not think too much about his clones taking on individual identities at all. He was more concerned with the brief flashes of black clothes he saw twice in the trees around him whilst he trained. Shiro had no sensor capabilities, so he knew that until he picked up a specialized jutsu, there was no way around keen observation to catch his silent audience. Thus, he resigned himself to wait for them to slip up, since they seemed to be too good to be caught out easily.


	3. Obituary: Distance

Uzumaki Naruto walked straight up the outer wall of the academy and slipped into his class through an open window, opting to sit on the ceiling in a meditative state to avoid nuisances. He did his best to tune out two banshee-like voices who fought over Uchiha Sasuke, a male voice demanding answers for being called fleabag, a puppy barking, chips being crunched on and someone… snoring? Ah, that must be Nara Shikamaru.

Instead of managing to slip into a meditative state, however, Naruto found himself in a sewer.

Momentarily affronted that his inner mind had chosen this imagery, he strode forward, silently wondering what this meant about himself. He at least was relieved of the fact that the sewer was dry and absent of drip-sounds, if a bit damp. That would have meant that his mind was not only incredibly disorganized, but also almost ADHD afflicted, which would have meant a very… hazardous… ninja career.

He followed along the long tunnel until it seemingly opened into a large chamber with a jail-like set of bars. A red fog was drifting from within and fading into nothingness outside. The bars themselves were gigantic, he was certain that if he were to wrap his arms around them, he wouldn't even cover quarter of the way around them. He theorized that if something was locked behind this, it had to be the sealed kyuubi no kitsune.

And this was proven, with the red eyes with slit pupils that blinked open, and gazed down on him.

 **"So… you have finally come, my jailor."** A deep voice sounded, one that reverberated in the semi-darkness.

"I was not even aware of you until a week ago, Kyuubi sama." Naruto said, bowing respectfully, then standing ramrod straight and crossing his arms. "You… are the reason I am a broken person."

Meanwhile, the kyuubi was quite out of it. Not only was the human showing his respect, there seemed to be a strong undercurrent of hatred and anger that ran beneath his tone. **"I know not what you are speaking of."**

"I will not describe my experiences to you, nor ask for understanding." Naruto said, clenched fists shaking were they were tucked against him. "Why did you attack Konohagakure no Sato twelve years ago?

The kyuubi let silence hang in the air for almost ten seconds before he laughed uproariously. **"To think that a mere human dares to challenge me! How foolish have you meat-bags gotten over the years?"**

Naruto said nothing, only unfolded his hands, and bowed his head. "You will tell me, Kyuubi-sama." He raised his head, to show glowing orange irises, yellow pupils, and black sclera full of hate staring at the kyuubi no kitsune, before he whirled around to walk away. "I will return when I have enough power to take my answers, whether you are willing or not."

"Naruto!"

Orange eyes snapped open, momentarily full of anger, glaring at teacher who called his name. His right hand had automatically caught the eraser that was thrown at him to catch his attention. The young Uzumaki blinked his eyes once, twice, and then his blue eyes faded back though the orange, then he pulled back the chakra in his thighs and legs that allowed him to stick to the ceiling, turning through the following fall and landing crouched on his legs soundlessly, his hood falling off his head in the process. He gazed at the man who was at the head of the class, pulling the name Shiranui Genma from Shiro's memories. He confirmed as such when he spotted the senbon in the teacher's mouth and the bandana-style leaf hitai-ate he wore. The standard dark blue leaf overclothes and green flak-jacket was on his person, in spite of the near-perpetual cocky smirk he seemed to wear.

"Gomen-nasai, sensei." He said softly, then made his way to his seat, not throwing back the eraser and ignoring the whispers that had begun in the wake of his fall.

"What happened to Naruto?" Ino whispered to Sakura, who simply shook her head in the negative.

Kiba, Akamaru, and Choji had lax jaws and wide eyes, as they were unable to recognize their friend at all. Who knew having a different ensemble and hair of another color made so much of a difference?

Shino and Sasuke were both regarding the Uzumaki with narrowed eyes, not that anyone could point that out about Shino since his own were hidden with sunglasses.

Shikamaru was too asleep to be of any note, and Hinata had fainted on seeing Naruto's torso.

Shiranui Genma, a good friend of Iruka in the past, on the other hand, was worried. He had been trying for the entire past week to search for the blonde, but now that he saw what he looked like, he was barely surprised he was unable to find him. Resolving to give the now-redhead his space, the teacher cleared his throat to continue. "As I was saying, Naruto, you are on Team 7 with Uchiha Sauke, and Haruno Sakura. Your Jonin sensei is Hatake Kakashi."

Naruto did not react beyond a nod to the news. While Hatake Kakashi was infamous throughout the elemental nations for copying a thousand jutsu with his implanted Sharingan, giving him the moniker 'Sharingan no Kakashi' after the Uchiha clan massacre, within the village he was known for being late, and reading erotica in public. His known distinguishing features were the face-mask he wore over the lower half of his visage, the shock of white hair that always stood at the same awkward angle, and his favorite orange novel that always adorned his hand. Meting him would be… interesting.

The young boy was none-too-pleased about his other teammates, however.

Uchiha Sasuke was an arrogant young boy who believed shurikenjutsu and knowing a single katon jutsu was enough to alleviate his status as compared to others. While, notably, his ability was far beyond his other peers as a consequence of grueling training, Naruto had far surpassed him, and was wondering if he should treat the last loyal Uchiha the same way he was treated by him.

Haruno Sakura was possibly a dead-weight in their team. While the girl was undoubtedly book-smart, and had amazing level of chakra control that Naruto could never even hope to achieve, she was severely lacking in any actual drive to improve her arsenal or even acknowledge the fat that she needed improvement. Additionally, her behavior was what his old self would have liked, which meant it was abysmal to the lowest degree.

He sighed, ignoring what Shiranui-sesnsei continued to say. At the way it was going, his ninja career looked bleak, at best.

He was fated to not disappointed, however, when his soon-to-be sensei popped his head in three hours, fifteen minutes, and a hundred 'hn's from Sasuke later.

"Well, what can I say? My first impression is… you guys are boring."

Sasuke, who was still sitting in the same spot as he was during Iruka sensei's lecture, sweat-dropped. Sakura, who was sitting right next to him, fell into a dejected mood. Naruto, who was on the ceiling practicing the Doton manipulation exercise, scoffed.

Waiting so exceedingly long for your sensei to show up was bound to do that to you. The young Fuinkusari bearer was not only peeved, he was super annoyed. How could he rely on someone to teach him who was so incredibly late to everything? He hoped that the same behavior did not transfer to missions.

"Meet me on the roof." Hatake sensei said, and shushined with a swirl of leaves. Naruto quickly followed, in a shushin that left no trace. This left Sasuke and Sakura to gape at the spot, Sakura to slip into thought about Naruto's capability, and Sasuke to falter. How was he supposed to beat Itachi when he couldn't even do a simple jutsu like a shushin?

While the two other members of their team took the ten-minute-long stairs, Naruto and Kakashi were having a stare-down.

"What else did you gain from copying a Nukenin's chakra impression?" the elder of the two asked, orange book in his left hand closed, right still in his pocket.

"A ninja is entitled to his secrets, Hatake sensei." Naruto said, smirking. He was currently seated on the two stairs in front of the man, leaning back against the sharp edge without any visible discomfort.

"Not amongst his team." Kakashi chided, eye-smiling. "Don't give me details, just a basic overview."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Hokage-sama has been lenient with you."

"Not very much so, but enough so that I am intrigued… intrigued enough to personally teach you a couple of jutsus, perhaps." The man dangled his bait. If Mizuki/Shiro was anything of a jutsu hog, the trait may have transferred onto Naruto.

And... apparently, it did. "Besides his Mofuko Kekkei Genkai, I also received his Doton affinity and memories… as I'm sure you know. The point of asking my abilities, was it to see whether I was open to sharing?"

"Astute." Kakashi grumbled.

"Barely as astute as you assume, Hatake sensei." Naruto smiled. "It is simply common sense."

Kakashi sighed, then ran a hand through his hair. "Maa maa… well, what jutsus do you know?"

"Now that would be telling, sensei." Naruto said, smirking mischievously. "After all, if I tell you of my repertoire now, I won't be able to surprise you during the second genin test."

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow. "How much did Shiro know about how the village works, anyway?"

"He was an ANBU, sensei. And he was under the thumb of another leaf nukenin. Of course, he knew a lot more than is healthy for us." Naruto rolled his eyes.

At this point, the other two members of Team 7 arrived, and took a seat on either side of Naruto, keeping a distance of a couple of decimeters. They both looked back and forth between Naruto and their sensei with more than a little wariness.

"Well, now that we are all here, why don't we introduce ourselves?" Kakashi said, sitting on the railing behind him.

"Why don't you go first, sensei?" Sakura said, nervously wringing her hands.

"You do look unreliable." Sasuke agreed in monotone, which almost caused Sakura's eyes to bulge out of their sockets, Kakashi to fall over, and Naruto to squawk.

Sasuke never agreed with anyone around him. And if he did…

Kakashi checked out of the corner of his eyes whether the crows nearby were white in color, before sighing. "Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi, jonin of Konohagakure. I have fairly few dislikes, and my likes you are too young to know. My hobbies… well, I have many hobbies. As for my dreams for the future…" he said, trailing off into silence.

A gentle breeze blew through the clearing, and through the hair of three very peeved genin.

'All he told us was his name, designation and village … which we already know….' The three genin thought, unknowingly in unison.

"Well, it's your turn. You first, Naruto."

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen and strong ninjas, and dislike weak, arrogant, and proud people." The redhead said, shrugging. "My hobbies include training and learning new jutsu. My dream for the future is to be a capable ninja." He said, with a tone of voice that allowed no argument.

Kakashi nodded, expecting something along the lines. "Next, the pinkette."

Sakura, gaping at Naruto, now scowled at her sensei, before doing a complete 180 and blushing at nothing in particular, with a smile on her face. "My name is Haruno Sakura. My likes… well, the person I like is…" at this point she gave a very obvious glance at Sasuke, who wasn't even looking in her direction, and squealed. "I dislike Ino-buta!" she said, with another meaningful glance at Naruto that was more telling than the last. "My dreams for the future…" she said, trailing off into blissful silence after sighing at the lone Uchiha present.

Kakashi sweat-dropped. 'Girls this age are more interested in boys than jutsu… But her ancestry, surely she should be more serious?' the man thought, shaking his head, then spoke, "Next, blue and broody."

Sasuke glared through narrowed eyes. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke." He said, and a dramatic breeze began to blow across the roof. "I dislike many things, and like only tomatoes. My hobbies are training, and running. My dream for the future… it is more of an ambition… the resurrection of my clan, and to kill a certain man."

While Sakura was mentally revaluating her image of Sasuke from cool to super-cool, both Naruto and Kakashi simultaneously thought, 'Uchiha Itachi…'

"Well, now that that's over, let's continue." Kakashi said, mentally praying for sanity while dealing with his team. "You may go home, for now, but tomorrow, meet me at training ground 7 for a survival exercise at 8 in the morning."

"As survival run?" Sakura asked, incredulously questioning. "But we did enough of that at the academy!"

In response, Kakashi chuckled darkly.

"I see nothing funny in that statement." Sasuke said, eyes narrowed. Naruto opted to let Kakashi finish his tirade than to rain on it.

"Well, no, but you see…" he started, chuckling again before continuing. "What we will actually be doing tomorrow is an exam! Out of the twenty-seven graduates of the academy, only nine will be actual genin on passing a test set forth by their Jonin sensei. In short, the probability of you becoming a genin is actually around 33.3 percent!"

Naruto remained silent, but Sakura took on a mask of outrage, while Sasuke seemed disbelieving.

"But, then what was the point of the academy graduation exam?!" Sakura demanded, standing in shock.

"Ah that, that was simply a way to root out the completely hopeless cases, so that we wouldn't have to deal with cannon fodder." Kakashi said, secretly amused. He was a little let down that Naruto already knew this from before, but ignored that in favor of reveling in the reactions of the other two.

After a few seconds of silence, he continued. "Well, if there's nothing else, farewell." Then he stood and turned towards the railing, one leg already rising to jump off. "Oh, and don't eat breakfast – you will end up puking." Then, he vanished.

Naruto stood up in the ensuing silence, and leapt off the railing too – transforming into a bird midfall and flying away to clear his head.

After spending the previous evening training his kagebunshins with a mock simulation battle in their designated training ground, Naruto arrived at the same spot next day at 10 in the morning, having woken up earlier and having a filling breakfast at 7 in order to give time for it to digest.

"You're late!" Sakura immediately said, pointing her finger accusingly at Naruto. Sasuke was leaning against the tree with his arms crossed, but you could tell he felt betrayed by Naruto's action of leaving him alone with the girl.

Naruto noted this subtly, the turned to Sakura. "You… are annoying."

Sasuke was about ready to demand who this imposter was in Naruto's body. Everyone in the academy knew that the boy was borderline obsessed with asking the girl out on a date, yet now…

"W-what?" Sakura whispered, astonished beyond measure.

Naruto shook his head and raised his hand, showing her his fingers as he counted, "One, you make Sasuke uncomfortable with your actions. This may have been alright in the academy, but is no longer acceptable when he is an active member of your team. Two, despite being theoretically smart, you apply yourself in zero other ways, wasting the potential you have with your control. Three, you treat everyone like a long-lost friend, with no semblance of respect of personal space. In short, you're a waste of space, at least for me."

The other two were stunned into silence by this… stunned enough to not say a single word as Naruto stared at Sakura like she was a worthless object until their sensei arrived.

'Maa maa, things sure are tense over here.' Kakashi thought, then eye smiled and waved. "Good morning!"

"Good morning, Hatake-sensei." Naruto greeted, inclining his head. Sasuke forcibly composed himself and grunted noncommittally, while Sakura still had her eyes trained on Naruto as if he had kicked her puppy.

Her attention shifted to her sensei when he withdrew a standard timer from his pocket and set it on the middle one of three training stumps nearby, then spoke. "The timer is set to ring at 1300 hours. Your objective is to retrieve these bells," he said, gesturing to two bells tied to his belt, "before that point in time."

"But… there are only two bells…" Sakura said, tone dejected.

Kakashi internally frowned in concern but kept up his eye-smile. "Sharp eyes, Sakura! Yes, there are only two bells, because only two of the three of you will become genin, if at all. The last one will return back to the academy."

Naruto's eyes instantly trained on Kakashi. All genin teams in Konoha were comprised of three genin and one jonin. Unless they would go through the hassle of switching people around again, which would be troublesome, Kakashi was lying. But why…

Oh! His plan was doomed to fail. This was a test to see if, in spite of the circumstances showing that one of the team would fail, the three of them could work together to achieve their incredibly difficult objective – a combined test of integrity, loyalty, and teamwork. Sasuke disliked him, and his behavior towards Sakura was intolerant at best. Sakura found him annoying, and possibly mean after their recent conversation, but adored Sasuke too much to be a contributing partner. And Naruto disliked them both. Couldn't Kakashi see that?

"Well, your time starts… now!" the jonin yelled, and Sasuke and Sakura immediately took to the trees.

Kakashi didn't react when Naruto did not immediately vanish. Unlike his other genin, Naruto probably already had a pretty good idea of Kakashi's capabilities, and perhaps already had planned for his defeat. He was proven right when Naruto withdrew a smoke bomb from his items pouch strapped around his waist that faced his back, and threw it on the ground.

Kakashi waited, but was surprised when he heard coughing from the cloud. The smoke dissipated to now a clearly uncomfortable Naruto, who was grumbling about using old tools. Kakashi thought that he tried using an expired smoke bomb that instead lead to a heavy coughing fit, leaving him unable to actually take advantage of the opportunity.

His musings dashed out of his mind however, when Naruto suddenly shushined behind him and engaged in a taijutsu match.

Kakashi, while commending his student for using the Kage Bunshin no jutsu in such an unpredictable manner, with clones almost dancing in tandem with the original in a clearly choreographed yet disorganized flurry of punches, kicks, and uppercuts, was incredibly frustrated that he could not show his students how cool he was by fighting one of them while reading his book.

In his irritation, he accidentally slipped on his restraint and ended up punching straight through the original Naruto.

His horror quickly turned into confusion when the 'original' turned into pure earth, and held onto his right hand securely. His confusion was cleared, however, when two Naruto Kage bunshin burst from the ground.

'I see!' the Jonin thought. 'So, he only pretended the bomb was defective, while he actually left a Doton Kagebunshin on the surface and sunk into the ground himself using the Dochu Senko. When the clone trapped me, he sprung forth with another clone! But which is the original?'

While he made to fight with his free hand, however, the clones simply tackled his and phased into earth themselves, effectively neutralizing his use of hands.

Just when Kakashi could not be surprised further at the planning involved, he heard the whistle something made while flying through the air, and looked up to see a single Naruto, perhaps the original, fly at him from the top of the nearby cliff.

'How did he… don't tell me he reached the top of the cliff while underground and jumped at me from there?' Kakashi thought, channeling chakra into his hands in preparation of using Raikiri with both to free himself. 'This was an elaborate plan, but what if I am not here in the first place?'

Before he could free himself however, Naruto reached him and hit his chest with his right palm. Immediately, Kakashi felt like he was being crushed, and fell to the earth under tremendous weight, even the earth clone restraints breaking from supporting a substantially heavy weight.

'This… the Chokajugan? This gaki…'

Naruto did not even feel winded. Severe practice in this department had left him this plan that he could resort to, and several ounces of chakra to utilize. When he bent down to retrieve a bell from his sensei's belt, however, the man suddenly stood up, looking completely unaffected.

Naruto immediately jumped back. 'How did he… oh. Wait. He knows a thousand jutsu. Of course, he knew the counter, the Keijugan. But now what… do I have to use _that_ idea?'

Kakashi eye-smiled. "Did you honestly think that was enough, Naruto?" he said, while internally commending Naruto's scheme.

"That was simply a means to see how strong you were against Doton, Hatake sensei." Naruto bluffed, deciding he had no choice since he did not want to return to the academy. He might just be forced to become a nukenin himself then, something he believed he was not ready for. Applying the Keijugan to himself, he floated up into the air to hover about eight feet off the ground, hand in a familiar cross seal. "The real battle begins now."

Kakashi looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto grit his teeth and created ten Doton Kagebunshin in a circle formation, all hovering in the air thanks to the present Keijugan. The original then landed, and assumed his taijutsu stance. Then quickly rushed towards Kakashi.

'Why use a tactic that already failed once?' Kakashi internally disapproved, while casually deflecting all of Naruto's attacks. When he made to punch him, however, he noticed a slight shimmer in the air, before his hand was suddenly covered by another Doton Kagebunshin in earth form. His eyes widened, then shifted to his other side where another Naruto was coming in from. He quickly used a Raikiri to break free and made to attack, but found himself covered in another Doton kage Bunshin. He freed himself again, and this continued for another seven times.

'Why is he repeating this?' the eldest sighed, even while deflecting strikes from the last clone. 'I only have twenty-five Raikiri's at my current chakra capacity, and I have already used nine. Is he trying to tire me out? At my speed level, that's useless, although he manages to surprise me every time… I think Hokage-sama did not elaborate enough on absorbing physical traits from his victim, since Naruto seems faster than even the average Chunin.'

When he dispelled and then broke through the trap again, the 'original' Naruto smirked, and then… dispelled…

"Another clone?!" Kakashi yelled, incredibly exasperated. When, even after five minutes nothing happened, he sighed, and then shushined towards the trees where he saw Sasuke and Sakura disperse.

Spotting Sakura below him, Kakashi neared her cautiously, but then let down his guard when he saw that she was anxiously searching the open area of the training ground for him. Shaking his head, he crept behind her and poked her shoulder.

To her credit, immediately after squealing, she tried to punch him, but he quickly used his Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu on her. However, the illusion seemed to have no effect, and Kakashi's visible eye narrowed. He chanced it and gave her a light kick, only to slip through it like a mirage, proving it to be a standard academy bunshin. The copy-nin sighed, and turned to look for his student elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Naruto was deep underground, processing information from all his assorted clones. It seems he was right, that at his current level, it would be impossible to defeat Kakashi, especially so when both were holding back. He surfaced, and began to make way towards the timer to wait for the end, only to come face to face with Uchiha Sasuke.

"You… are strong. Fight me." The Uchiha said, kunai in hand and dropping into combat stance.

Naruto, instead of moving, discretely made a Doton Kagebunshin ten paces behind Sasuke. "Why should I?"

The Uchiha cocked his head to convey confusion.

The answer, however, came from behind him. "Why should I waste time on a worthless piece of trash like you?"

Sasuke whirled around, intent on running his kunai through the clone, but instead saw around fifty clones, all either hovering in the air or poking out from the ground.

"My hatred dwarfs yours, Sasuke." The real Naruto spoke from behind him, and he turned around to level a glare at him. "As such, the only path for you is that of… love and acceptance." Naruto spat the last three words out as if they were poison, and smirked at the expression on the Uchiha prodigy's face. "Well, love does tend to cause us to do unheard of things, and acceptance keeps confidence high, so it is a worthy enough path… although for you, it might be a tad difficult to walk it given the requirement of actually showing emotion in the first place."

"What happened to you?" The Uchiha asked, eyes almost wide. Almost.

"Tell me, Sasuke, did you ever ask for the adoration of the village? Did you ever ask for being treated like royalty? How did it feel to have a family once? To have a father, who was stern but cared, to have a doting mother, to have a guardian brother?"

At that, the Uchiha's face turned almost red in rage, but the next words out of Naruto's mouth changed his world forever.

"I never had any of that. While you stew in the village's love, I grew up shrouded in their ignorant hate. No one ever looked at me, all they saw was the kyuubi." Naruto walked forward, towards Sasuke, coming to stand on his side, facing the opposite direction as he did.

The young Uchiha was still reeling. 'The village saw him as the kyuubi… but… wait! That means-'

"I hate Kyuubi-sama, for being the reason my life was and is utter crap." The redhead said frankly, eyes resolutely facing forward. "I hate the Yondaime, for sealing the beast in me in the first place. I hate the Sandaime for letting me grow like this, for eve letting the fact out that I was a container. I hate the village for treating m the way they did." Then, he turned orange eyes towards the Uchiha, who was looking at him in astonishment. "But I hate you the most, for having whatever I want, and simply throwing it away."

Sasuke leapt away forming hand-signs for the Katon: Goukyaku no Jutsu rapidly and shooting out a gigantic fireball from his mouth. "You don't know my pain! You can't understand what I've been through!"

Naruto Calmly leapt over the slow projectile and faced the boy again.

"How can you understand, when you've never even had anyone… in... the first place…" Sasuke slowly trailed off, having a momentary spark of clarity, and seeing the stupidity in his words. Sure, when someone has something and it is taken away from them, it is much more painful than if someone never had that thing at all. But what about a person who desperately wanted something, could see others having it, cried out for it, but did not receive it anyway, a person who was ignored entirely? Was that person's pain not worse?

Naruto gauged Sasuke's face for something, and then turned, leaving contemplating boy to his thoughts.

When he reached the three waist-high stumps, it was to find Kakashi leaning against one, reading his book, and Sakura tied against one of the stumps, unconscious. Chuckling, he walked right up to the man and leaned against the other side of the trunk. "I hope you weren't too hard on her."

"I hit her with a C-rank genjutsu." Kakashi admitted, making Naruto shake his head. "However, finding her was harder than what one would think…"

"Subterfuge, hm? It seems like our team is shaping up to be something other than a frontline fighting team, Hatake-sensei."

"Maa maa, Naruto-kun, are you disappointed? You are more geared towards frontline fighting after all."

"Not really." Naruto said, leaning his head back further until it met the Jonin's back. "Shiro knew several other Earth style Jutsus, like the Doryuuheki, the Doryuudan, even a new jutsu called the Doryuu no Jishin. I smply chose not to learn them because I wanted to be gearing towards an assassin rather than a frontline fighter."

Kakashi stayed silent for a few moments, before speaking in a tone that conveyed his serious mood. "What are you up to, Naruto-kun? What is you real goal?"

"Now Kakashi," Naruto said, smirking. He knew his bluff had fallen short, and that the jonin knew he would end up learning those jutsus anyway. He could also see Sasuke's form approaching. "That would be telling."


	4. Obituary: Gozu and Mezu

"Hokage-sama, if it is not to bothersome, I would like to say something."

Currently, Team 7 was in the Missions office. It just so happened to be one of the random days when the Hokage would join in, making the current tribulation all the stranger. At the desk sat Shiranui Genma, the newly minted genins' old-new sensei. Since the academy had been let out for a month break after the year ended, he was allowed a well-deserved vacation – instead, he chose one of the next arduous jobs, that of the mission-monger, and could not leave until the three-month contract was up.

"Speak freely, Naruto-kun." Said the Hokage, fingers intertwined and laid on the table. To him, it seemed that whenever he met Naruto, the boy had changed. First it was his mannerisms, growing steadily more composed and coldly biting when peeved. Then, it was his clothes.

After a month of changing around, Naruto had finally settled on a sleeveless dirt-brown tee shirt, grey full-length shinobi pants, and dark grey toe-less boots. His dark brown hitai-ate was firmly secured on his head, but the metal plate with the symbol of Konohagakure no Sato faced his right, letting the long strips of cloth left over from the knot to fall down to his left elbow.

He wasn't the only one who had changed, however. Naruto's determination to learn had apparently broken Kakashi out of his lazy streak, motivating the Jonin to raise his skillset up to his old rank, and convincing him to teach the team more as well. Of course, this meant that the two genin besides Naruto were almost perpetually exhausted, but the results were well worth it. Along with the standard tree walking, water walking, and speed enhancement routines, each team member matured differently.

Uchiha Sasuke was on his way to an entire 180 from his previous self. Anyone who knew him no would never believe that he was severely anti-social a month ago, but would sometimes see him instinctively try to slip into a reserved state, only to force his way out of it. The boy had finally opened up, even approaching Konoha General to see a psychologist. They were in luck, especially so since they found a genjutsu-implanted subliminal message that raised his anger and ego to irrational levels, and also caused him to ignore some parts of that fateful night he was faced with tragedy. When it was finally off (thanks to the efforts of a certain toad-sage seal master), he was more like the pre-massacre version of himself – a child full of curiosity and good-natured determination. The boy had at least reached out to Sakura, who only seemed happy to finally receive attention from her long-time crush – she realized he would not magically turn into her friend, and so did not push him and gave him his space. He didn't change in some ways, preferring silence over boisterous displays of friendship. His infrequent attempts to make count Naruto as a friend, however, was constantly met with clever redirection. He still wanted to find Itachi, if only to ask answers as to why he slaughtered his clan, and wanted to prove himself as a ninja. Flourishing under Kakashi's tutelage, he learned two new Katon jutsus (Enbunshin, and Goryuuka) and the shushin.

Sakura too, had developed. She had taken to genjutsu like a fish to water, almost at the terrifying speed of learning that Naruto seemed to have. It was simple with her, however – a thorough lecture or book on the subject, and three demonstrations later she could grasp the concept easily. She learned four new genjutsus (Genjutsu: Oinaru Sakura, Mugen: Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu, Mugen: Jubaku Satsu no Jutsu, and Genjutsu: Kokuangyo) besides the Mugen: Narakumi no Jutsu. She seemed as erratic as ever in behavior from the outside, but now at least seemed to understand when to say what. She also lengthened her hair, using her hitai-ate as a hairband, and wore a brighter pink color dress to catch an opponent's attention in order to cast a genjutsu.

"You are an idiot." Naruto said, arms folding.

His Jonin-sensei let out an insufferable sigh. Sakura face-faulted and Sasuke facepalmed.

"Naruto!" admonished his pink-haired teammate rather loudly, "Do not address the Hokage that way!"

"Have some respect for the Hokage, koneko." Kakashi said under his breath.

Both Hiruzen and Naruto ignored them as the latter continued. "While I understand that there is a lack of reliable manpower for missions, you have been going about this all wrong. D Rank missions are handed out to new genin teams to improve teamwork, but the actual effectivity is next to 0, and the money earned is laughable. Why not delegate these missions to academy students set in random mock team formations as a separate module entirely? Not only do they learn to work with each other, but they also work for no cost. The missions are easy enough for them to handle even with no jutsu. Over the vacations, it can be assigned as a holiday assignment to complete at least ten over the span of two months. This will free up your manpower for higher ranked missions, while increasing your village coffers, since you're not paying them at all. Since they gain experience and the record will later be added to their ninja profile, it's a solution where everyone benefits."

Silence reigned in the office. The two other chunin who were on mission-monger duty looked at the redhaired kid who just spoke with wide eyes, since he had made a perfectly logical argument.

Hiruzen himself seemed shocked, while Kakashi simply shook his head, unbelieving that no-one ever thought of this before. But then again, he had come to expect the extraordinary out of his favorite pupil. The boy had learned an astounding number of ten new Doton jutsus (Doryuu no Jishin, Doryuuheki, Tajyuu Doryuuheki, Sando, Kengan, Chidokaku, Daichidokaku, Iwahogo, Doryuujoheki, and Doryuudan) and created two more (Iwakami no Unarigoe (Rock God's Growl), Go Iwa-aki (Great Rockfall)) and had mastered the chakra control exercises of his primary wind affinity, but was unable to learn or create any purely wind jutsus until now. When Kakashi had given him two scrolls with an extremely advanced jonin-level chakra control exercise each, the boy had not slept for a week straight until he mastered them, only to fall asleep for two days straight later. And indeed, the Multiple-needle Suspension and Air-Propulsion exercises had increased his control so much, that the boy was no longer winded even after a day's straight of Keijugan self-levitation. It was then that Naruto realized that the jutsu was a type of control exercise itself that also slowly increased his reserves, and kept it activated in most non-stress situations. He also applied the bloodline ability of the Mofuko clan in several situations, most notable of which being his new jutsu, Tajyuu Kemono Gazo (Multiple beast Imagery) – essentially, it relies on his capability to create several hundred Doton Kagebunshin without feeling even barely winded, and then have them morph into several different predators of the wild, mostly observed from the infamous Forest of Death, and was currently working on turning into giant versions of normal animals. The young Uzumaki was certainly coming along as a ninjutsu expert, if these past two months were any indication. His imagination was certainly to be commended, and even more so his determination… although, that could be attributed to his chakra reserves. Shinobi with his level of chakra control and low-genin level reserves could continuously fire B-Rank jutsus for an hour straight. Factor in his monstrous Uzumaki-level potent chakra reserve size, and you have a true nightmare on your hands! Kakashi could only shiver in anticipation of the day when Naruto learnt to draw on Kyuubi's power. Already, at any given point in time, he could create nine hundred Doton kagebunshin simultaneously an maintain them for an upwards of five hours…

"That… is an interesting idea, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen said, knocking Kakashi out of his reverie. "In response… how about we give you your first C-Rank mission?"

"I cannot be the judge of that, Hokage-sama." Naruto said, stepping back fluidly. "Sensei, are we ready?"

Kakashi chuckled good-naturedly. "Naruto-kun, at this point I believe we can tackle a C-rank with ease."

"But- but- they're fresh out of the academy!" a random chuunin protested. "Every Genin team has to tackle at least a fifty D-rank missions before attempting a C-rank anyway!"

Team 7 looked at him with barely concealed glee. Even Naruto and Hiruzen were smirking. "Naruto, why don't you show Shinken-kun exactly how this does not matter?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Naruto nodded, and brought his hands in his now signature cross seal, creating four Doton Kagebunshin, who then morphed into exact replicas of Team 7. "Shinken-san, as everyone knows at this point, my bloodline ability allows me to transform into any living creature. Using this in conjunction with my ability to spam a multitude of kagebunshin, at any given point in time, you can assume that there are four 'Team 7's out and about, completing missions far away from each other. Not only does it enhance our Team's reputation in the eyes of others, but also increases our mission count substantially, since I'm an official part of Team 7."

Shinken was gaping, especially so since it made sense.

Naruto continued. "Now, Shinken-san, consider this – it has been two months since our official establishment as Team 7. That means eight weeks. If you minus a week a day as a holiday, you have forty-two days. Forty-two times four is…"

"A hundred and sixty-eight…" the chuunin whispered. "That's insane…"

"Ah, but you see, that's not all." Kakashi chimed in, snapping his book closed and accepting the scroll for the C-rank mission that the Hokage held out, who was smiling in pride. "He asked you to assume there were four teams running around. He didn't say that's the actual number."

Shinken looked upon Kakashi with wide eyes, then to his former 'student', who was rapidly turning into a scary ninja in his perception. "H- how many?"

Sasuke and Sakura also listened intently, along with the other chunin present, as none of them knew the exact number.

"Ten."

Everyone present save for Hiruzen, Kakashi, and Naruto face-faulted.

"Ten?!" Shinken screamed, more in disbelief than anger. "That's impossible! There has to be a law or something against this!"

"Actually, Shinken-kun," Hiruzen answered, looking gleeful at their faces, "the only law related to D-rank missions is that you can't use C-rank and above level ninjutsus while on it. There was no stipulation about the jutsu in question already being used before even accepting the mission from our office. This was a loophole included on purpose in order to allow ninjas with capabilities like Naruto possesses to be used at their full potential."

Shinken simply lowered and shook his head, amazed by the prospect. Exactly how strong had this little redhead demon become?

"Anyway, I believe we have spent enough time on this topic." Hiruzen spoke, then buzzed a bell present in front of him on the desk. "Bring him in!"

The door to the Missions Office opened, and a rather old man stepped through. Despite his obvious age, however, he had a suitably fit build, if not the potbelly he boasted, but the reason for the latter was obvious after taking a single breath in his presence – the air around his was saturated with the smell of sake.

"These are the best you have?! The look like they wouldn't be able to protect a baby, forget giving super protection to a super person like me!" he said, slurring over a few of the words.

"Please do not antagonize the team credited with your well-being, Super-san." Sakura said, voice sickly sweet. Sasuke grinned, Kakashi eye-smiled, and Naruto smirked. "After all, you do not want us to… slip in our protections, do you?"

"N- no…" the man stammered, sobered instantly by the thought. The five then proceeded to walk out of the missions office and into the open.

"Very well, Tazuna-san," Kakashi said, eyes on his book again (how did he whip it out of his pouch so fast is a mystery many will admit having at least pondered on occasion), "we will be departing tomorrow morning. I'll send along my genin Haruno Sakura to collect you from your hotel… the Boro, ne?"

"Hai, Sense-san." The man said, nodding. "If its not too much trouble, I will outline our trip now. We will proceed on foot to-"

"That will not be necessary." Naruto intruded, crossing his arms. "We will be using a faster means of transport that I can administer. Do you have a fear of heights or motion sickness?"

"Not that I know of." Tazuna said, rubbing his chin. "But are you sure? I will not be able to pay-"

"That's quite alright, Tazuna-san." Naruto interrupted, smiling chillingly. "After all, a capable ninja must not charge his client for extra services he or she offers."

Tazuna nodded reluctantly. "If that's all…?"

"Ah yes." Kakashi drawled, "Disperse. Naruto, meet me tomorrow at the main gates. Sasuke, I have to talk to you about something, so stay behind. Sakura, do not forget to collect our client tomorrow morning."

"Hai, sensei!" the three genin chorused, then split up. Sakura walked in the direction of her home in the merchant's district, Sasuke walked towards a bench nearby while Kakashi spoke to the client, and Naruto shushined away from the area entirely and into his apartment.

'We I'll be gone for quite a few days.' Naruto thought, looking around. 'On the journey itself, we may encounter resistance. I do not know why, but this entire mission is giving off a bad feeling. What should I do…?'

Naruto pondered it for quite a while, assembling and disregarding plans, until he noticed that it was quite late. He drifted off to sleep then, creating a kagebunshin to wrap up his pouch for tomorrow, clean the apartment, then sneak into the public jutsu library to search for more Doton jutsus, then wake him up an hour before the appointed meeting time.

While waiting for Tazuna and Sakura to show up at the village gates, already having submitted a copy of their mission scroll to the eternal gate guards Kotetsu and Izumo, Kakashi was giving his students a pep-talk.

"And remember," he said, eyes still trained on his book, "Anything you find or … procure on this mission from enemy ninja is best kept by you or submitted to the village armory. Leave the principle of honor for the samurai to use – a ninja uses every tool at his disposal. Consequently, the bodies of any enemy ninja or even your client, should the undesirable come to pass, must be disposed of, or sealed in a scroll and brought in to the village to minimize future threats. If you have any inquiries or any… problems in dealing with what you must do or are forced to do, don't hesitate to come speak to me."

"Hai, sensei." Sasuke said, nodding, while Naruto inclined his head.

"Sasuke, how does that scroll on Bakudanjutsu I gave you work out?" Kakashi asked, sounding bored to all the world, but his team knew when he was serous.

"Splendidly, sensei." Sasuke said, grinning. He gestured to the addition of a new black pouch strapped diagonally across his chest from left shoulder to right hip, pouch in front. "Having a fire affinity means that bombs come to me on a more instinctual level, allowing me to throw them with a preternatural grasp for the area of effect and detonation time. The Kage Bakudan no Jutsu, however, is a difficult one to perform." He ended, glancing at Naruto while he said so.

"Any shadow multiplication technique has a high chakra cost, but that's not all, it also is taxing on the user's mind." Naruto said, deactivating his Keijugan, and seemingly hesitating before speaking. "Try attempting the technique with the Kagebunshin hand-sign. Additionally, shadow replication techniques require you to perfectly visualize the object or yourself spawning next to the original. This alone reduces the brute strength chakra requirement by at least half."

Sasuke nodded at that, since it made sense. "Arigato, Naruto. I will try it out the next time I train."

Naruto just grunted noncommittally, before perking up. "Sensei, the clone team I sent about an hour ago just encountered resistance. Two chunin-level nukenin from Kirigakure, the Demon Brothers – Gozu and Meizu. The battle was quite a piece of cake, as it went something like this-

Leisurely walking along the road, the five Doton Kagebunshin currently morphed into Team 7 plus their client were seemingly in companionable silence. This was their state for the past hour or so, as they dutifully traced the route assigned by their original. This came to an abrupt end however, when they noticed two puddle of water in the middle of the road. All sighed almost in unison at the incompetence displayed at subterfuge, reminding them briefly of a certain brunette child they had recently taken under their wing.

Regardless, the group walked past the puddles without a backward glance, and a clone shook his head when he heard the telltale sounds of water moving.

"One down." A voice spoke drolly, and thy sped through the clone designated as Kakashi. The clone, using substitution and a minor application of genjutsu, survived, but made it so that the two believed he was neutralized.

"Two down" They said, coming up behind the clone designated as Sakura. A similar incident came to pass, and 'Sakura' joined 'Kakashi' in the branches, both morphing into their original state.

"Three and four down." They said, slicing through Naruto and 'Sasuke' with their chain. They did this at high speeds, so it was quite okay that the clones just 'died' without a fight, since the only 'clone' supposed to be fast was 'dead'.

When all the four Doton Kagebunshin were in the branches, two readied a kunai each, and as soon as the two ninjas turned to stalk towards 'Tazuna' who was 'trembling in fear', two clones cut of the neck of one attacked, and used the Doton: Chokajugan on the second one to render him immobile. However, the second attacker had managed to take out one clone, as had the other before he fell. However, both morphed into restraints that held the dead body up and the alive one down.

The three remaining clones, now in their original form, now converged on the lone living attacker, who was struggling against the jutsu but was unable to reverse it. They exploited their Mofuko bloodline to morph their eyes into blood-red with slits, elongated their canine and nails, and change their voice into something resembling scary.

"Now, then," One spoke, drawing out the words for a great impact, then poised above the man's neck. "Who are you and why did you attack us?"

"I won't tell you anything!" the man panted out, eyes darting all around.

"Wong answer." One clone said, and then a man's scream rang out after a sharp cracking sound.

On interrogation, it is found that a powerful business tycoon by the name of Gato is after Tazuna's life with fervor." Naruto continued, ignoring the sweatdropping Kakashi and Sasuke. "He wants to kill him due to his role in the construction of a major bridge in the wave country connecting the island to the mainland of Hi no Kuni that will severely lessen the monopoly over trade he currently has established there. The two ninja who attacked us work for an A-rank nukenin Momochi Zabuza, who is accompanied by an Oinin from Mist. They are bringing the bodies in as we speak. Konoha can claim the bounty, but they wielded equipment that have caught my fancy."

"An Oinin?!" Kakashi took time to digest this information before sighing. "It seems we have been lied to about the parameters of this mission. Common sense would indicate that the cause of this is the poverty-afflicted nature of the Wave country, unable to pay for a higher ranked mission."

"Had this been any other rookie genin team, they would have faced certain death for sure." Sasuke mumbled, smiling at Naruto. "I suppose it helps that we have a strong member on our team."

Naruto scoffed. "I am not nearly strong yet. Those brothers were simply far below their advertised level."

Kakashi rolled his eyes. 'Naruto, you're easily chunin in all aspects, perhaps a tokubetsu jonin. There was no way you will not be promoted in the next chunin exams, which are about half a year away, if my memory serves me correctly. I suppose I should savor the time I have with him, considering that he'll be off the team soon enough. The cute little redhead gaki would-'

'Wait.'

'Cute? Where did that even come from? Bad Kakashi! Too much icha-icha does that to you, I guess.'

"Ah, there they are, Naruto." Sasuke said, jostling him out of his thoughts. Kakashi only then noticed he had been taking in Naruto's appearance. The redhead had left his hair grow, the tips of which now reached his shoulders, as wild as ever. His eyes in their forever cat-like shape, his face a pale oval. His structure, a shapely man's…

Naruto simply strode forward to his clones, who had laid the storage seals on the ground and unsealed the bodies. He removed Gozu's cape and shrugged it on, the tattered length of which reached till lower than his knee as compared to the adult's waist length reach. He then meticulously made moves to remove the gauntlets they wore carefully, thankful that the cotton lining installed for comfort meant that he could wear them without difficulties. He tested them, shooting out a chin from both the gauntlets and channeling chakra to make them join mid-flight, then retracting them to jump over them like a skipping rope, and using them as such for a few repetitions.

"These are remarkably easy to use." He said, continuing to use the deadly poison-coated chain as a skipping-rope.

Kakashi sweat-dropped. 'Presumably, he finds them easy to use because he saw the demon brothers use them in battle, and kami knows how that played out, but to almost instinctively use them for the first time himself… just how observant are his clones?'

"Seal them up again and turn them in straight to the Hokage. No-one else." The redhead commanded, still skipping. The clones resealed the bodies, creating one more to complete a four-man team, who transformed into Team 7, rushing to the Missions Office soon after.

'Did he lose only two clone in the battle against two higher level ninja?' Sasuke thought, eyeing them incredulously. 'Granted, shadow cones can use jutsus, but still, how strong is he…..? Itachi, right here is a talented individual, someone who is quickly catching up to your level. With his friendship, I will defeat you."

Sakura arrived soon after, giving only a second's glance to Naruto skipping over a razor-sharp chain, then shook her head and walked to her sensei, the 'super' bridge-builder Tazuna in tow. "Sensei, we are ready."

Naruto then stopped skipping, and retracted the chain individually into each gauntlet. Then he brought his hands into a cross-seal, making five Doton Kagebunshin, who then transformed into Team 7 plus their client, and began to walk towards wave country. He then turned to the originals. "We will be flying on this mission. I have used the Keijugan on you all to give you a feel for it, but Tazuna-san will have to be tied to one of us in order to ensure he doesn't fly off."

While Sasuke worked on that, Naruto used the jutsu on both Kakashi and Sakura, causing them to hover in the air before each of them zipped around, testing their range of movement. While Sasuke finished tying up, the redhead created fifteen more doton kagebunshin, having them transform into crows while coming into existence. The Naruto-ravens cawed, then flew off, circling around the group, eyes darting over everything.

After applying the jutsu to Sasuke and Tazuna, the group shot straight up into the air and flew off towards their destination, the 'super' bridge-builder screaming until he finally fainted.


	5. Obituary: Momochi Zabuza and Yuki Haku

"Well, that was fast." Kakashi mused, angling his flight downwards. "Everyone, land now."

One by one, all of Team 7 and the unconscious Tazuna touched down after crossing the mass of water that separated Hi no Kuni and Nami no Kuni. Naruto scoffed at Tazuna as Sasuke untied him.

"Sensei, why did we not fly till we reached the village Tazuna-san is from?" Sakura asked, shifting nervously.

"because, pinkette-chan," Kakashi said, eye-smiling. "We need Tazuna-san awake to tell us which village is it. On this land-mass, there are two villages in particular, sister villages if you may, that are almost identical. Additionally, we do not know whether Tazuna's house is actually in the village, and asking around would surely alert Gato, who has probably employed spies in the vicinity. Approaching his daughter or his grand-son would be too risky, too."

"That's baseless, however." Naruto butted in, folding his hands. "We can easily recon the area and identify Tazuna's house through reconnaissance and identifying his family."

"We shouldn't waste time when our answer is right in front of us, yes?" Kakashi said, still smiling.

Naruto huffed, but complied.

"Wha-" Tazuna grumbled, standing up with Sasuke's help, then promptly turned around and threw up. "Kami!"

"Tazuna-san, are you okay?" Sakura asked, concerned. She helped the man settle donw and drink his canteen of water.

"It's… well, at least now I know I have a fear of heights." Tazuna grumbled.

"That wouldn't be the case if you didn't drink so much." Naruto grumbled, but wilted under Kakashi's reproachful gaze.

"Please lead us to your house, Tazuna-san."

"Of course, Sensei-san. We are… on Nami no Kuni's north shores? It's quite close, please follow me."

And so, the five people walked along with Tazuna.

"Sensei, does Nami no Kuni not have any hidden villages?" Sakura asked, curious.

"Not quite, Sakura. The Island does not have enough habitants to even match half of Konoha's population." Kakashi said, the cocked his head. "In fact, even the normal villages here of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are quite empty."

"That will change when the bridge is complete." Tazuna said, voice full of hope. "Nami no Kuni may not have much in the way of agricultural resources, but it has a lot of metal deposits, and even certain monuments. With proper trade and transport, it could become a flourishing land. But Gato…"

"Why is a village called 'hidden' if everyone knows where it is?" Naruto asked, kicking a stray rock away. "For instance, our village is called 'Konohagakure no Sato', but it isn't hidden at all! By now, everyone knows where it is, and the same applies for every other 'hidden' ninja village! The only properly hidden ninja village is Takigakure."

"The names have simply stuck, Naruto." Sasuke said, gazing up into the sky. "Once upon a time, when the villages were first founded under the watchful eyes of Uchha Madara and Senju Hashirama, their dream was simply for a peaceful settlement away from all wars. However, the presence of people skilled in war and stealth brought about the concept of ninja."

"That's right!" Sakura piped in. "Before the creation of 'Hidden Villages', there were only clans. Warring between them was as daily an occurrence as watching clouds in the sky – they all wanted to be on top, and so fighting was common. Come to think of it, we were more like warriors with special abilities than 'ninja' back then." She seemed to be in thought, and raised her head to ask, "Sensei-"

She was cut off by Sasuke who threw a kunai into a bush.

"Sasuke!" Sakura reprimanded.

"I swear I felt someone, right there!" The Uchiha said, disregarding Sakura.

When Kakashi and Naruto went to have a look, the spotted only a white rabbit. But this put both into deep thought. They traded a glance as they thought together, 'The Morpho-oryctolagus cuniculus is a breed of rabbit that changes color based on the amount of sunlight it is exposed to. It is brown when exposed to sunlight for more than fifteen minutes. It's the middle of the day, so should it not be brown…? White means it was kept indoors for substitution, which means-'

'Wait... that noise…?'

"GET DOWN!" the two of them yelled, and everyone dropped to all fours. But it was not enough. Naruto in a shunshin, appeared in front of the three vulnerable people and erected a rock dome using Doton: Iwa Hogo. After a dull thud impacted the dome, Naruto used Doton: Iwakami no Unarigoe to blast it outwards. When the dust settled, Naruto saw that the object that had impacted his dome, a Zampakuto by the looks of it, had been flung into a tree trunk. Having studied the Bingo book for his profile while flying, Naruto recognized the person who appeared to stand on it easily.

"Momochi Zabuza." He said, voice icy. And indeed, the man looked exactly like the picture in the bingo book, if not for a change of uniform. He still wore his headband in a style reminiscent of Naruto's save for the tilt. His lower face was wrapped in bandages, and his torso was bare. Arctic camo pants and grey shinobi sandals clothes is lower half, with leg warmers of similar camo scheme donned on his lower arms, between his elbow and wrist. On his hands were a pair of metal plated black gloves.

"Well well well, what have we here?" the man said, expression unidentifiable because of the lack of eyebrows and covered face. "Sharingan no Kakashi and a Doton expert?"

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto." Said boy growled, fingers twitching.

"An Uzumaki?" Zabuza asked, voice surprised. "I thought they were all but wiped out. This should be interesting." He said, releasing a tiny bit of killing intent. Both Kakashi (a member of the ANBU) and Naruto (Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune) shrugged it off, but Sasuke and Sakura shuddered, while Tazuna passed out.

"No time to waste." Naruto said, and suddenly twenty Doton Kagebunshin and twenty Iwabunshin burst from the trees. Zabuza managed to avoid most of them, but seven of them caught him and phased into rock. No sooner than that happened, twenty Doton kagebunshin burst from the ground, ready to deliver Kengan-powered punches. Kakashi, seeing the opportunity for an early defeat, charged a Raikiri in his hand and geared in for a Shunshin-

Only to suddenly see a rectangular construct of ice form behind Zabuza, and someone proclaiming, "Hyouton: Tsurara no Mai!"

A sudden wind picked up, blowing cool air and ice fragments in harsh force. A concentrated burst hit Zabuza and everything in his direction, forcing Kakashi to Jump back and the Naruto clones holding him down to break apart. The younger boy in question had quickly raised an overpowered Doryuuheki once he thought Kakashi was going to fall back within distance, but was not prepared for a Mizubunshin of Zabuza's own creation to uppercut Kakashi from behind and launch him towards the lake. Naruto tried to reel him in with the gauntlet's chains, but the clone sped into its flight path, then dispersed while the real Zabuza sped to the water body. "Suiton: Suiro no jutsu!"

'And everything was going quite okay till now too.' Kakashi internally moaned, watching with shocked resignation as the water around his person moved into a spherical formation, locking him in its grip. He instantly started using the Suiton manipulation exercise that drew water from air in the opposite fashion, drawing air from water. It was a severely draining exercise, one he hadn't even mastered yet, but at least it would keep him alive.

"Kirigakure no Jutsu!" Zabuza proclaimed again, and suddenly a mist seemed to flow in from all sides of the little clearing they were in.

"What kind of ninja yells out the name of his jutsus anyway?" Naruto grumbled, retracting the chains into his new gauntlet.

Kakashi sighed. 'Naruto has shown an almost preternatural ability to manipulate them, forming a shield around him made up purely of the chains, dubbing it Kusari: Hogo no Tate when experimenting with them while flying. Well… two chunin level ninja would not have garnered the reputation of dangerous nukenin without a catapult that filled in the missing skill needed – the chains probably had seals on them to grow when fed with chakra, and are able to manipulate them with the influx. Well, combined with poison, that's a formidable asset. But then… how did Naruto fight them in the first place?'

"Now then, brats, I'm giving you one more chance – abandon your client and run, or else you will die a very painful death." Zabuza said, smirking underneath his bandages. Besides him, Haku made a threatening pose with two Hyousenbon, and the Kubikiribocho wielder felt a momentary flare of irritation. Were it not for the whisker gaki, he would have a way out of this by now. The gaki was going to be an issue if this went on, especially since he should not have weighed them much when he held on – that had to be the Kajugan no jutsu. And if a shinobi knew more than three jutsus of an element to a proficiency that he could use them without hand-signs, one could not underestimate his jutsu arsenal at all.

Meanwhile, the child behind the mask was having different thoughts entirely. 'His eyes… he has been through hardship.' He thought, slipping into his senbonken stance. 'He is dangerous. Not because of his jutsu, but because of his apparent willingness to see things through. That can be deadly… and I only know a few Hyouton Ninjutsu. I think it's time to use that…'

Sakura, meanwhile, finished priming her chakra. Immediately, a tree seemed to sprout behind the boy, and Sakura emerged from it, primed to strike at his neck.

The masked boy, however, simply raised his hand backwards, launching a hail of ice senbon from the mist. This compelled Sakura to dodge and jump back to their client, who she had entrusted the safekeeping of to Sasuke for the time.

"He can counter any genjutsu physically… it's like he's not even affected!" the rosette sighed in frustration.

"Being constantly impacted by Zabuza's killing intent, weak level genjutsu will be like shrugging off flies to him. I'm sorry, Sakura." Sasuke empathized, still not taking eyes of his opponent. He knew all-too-well how it feels to be useless against a considerably stronger opponent.

Meanwhile, the boy's eyes were drawn to a slight ripple in the water on which he was standing. That was the only warning he got before he had to turn to block a blow from… Kakashi?

"Nice to see how stupid nukenin are nowadays." 'Kakashi' said, flashing his Sharingan. The Kakashi inside the water prison dispersed in a burst of smoke. Zabuza cursed his luck for fighting ninja who knew the Kagebunshin before he withdrew his hand and jumped backwards along with his charge to create some space beween them, both landing on the waterfall nearby. When the water prison dissipated into a swirl of water before falling into the lake, however… Kakashi was still there?!

'That means…!'

The Kakashi who jumped up from the water smirked, before transforming back into his original state of a small redhead and dispersing.

'That gaki!' Zabuza fumed, while the boy next to him clenched his fists in frustration. These were tricky ninja they were dealing with.

'Nice thinking, Naruto!' Kakashi praised, drawing two kunai in each hand and imbuing them with lightning chakra, something which seemed to catch the eyes of the Uchiha progeny. 'Seems that Sasuke is interested in Raiton… but that instinctual draw… could it be that he has a lightning nature? I'll have to check when we finish this fight. He's already low-chunin level… but Naruto is beyond even a tokubetsu jonin, clearly! Even if I did not believe it concretely before, I do now. The idea to trick those two into thinking that I was a clone while his clone was the original was ingenious! Granted, it would not have worked without his bloodline or Sakura's split-second understanding and genjutsu application, but it was a worthy idea none-the-less!'

"Kukuku, Haku, it looks like we are up against people who actually aren't trash this time. At this rate, they might just irritate us. We can't have that, can we?" Zabuza smirked, hefting his zanpakuto over his right shoulder.

"No, Zabuza-sama." The now named Haku said, before stepping into a sheet of ice that appeared in front of him, before shooting towards the unconscious Tazuna.

'Fast!' Kakashi thought, turning to run to his genin, but a Suiryuu no jutsu from Zabuza forced him to backflip.

"Your fight is with me, Hatake!" Zabuza roared, before raising his right hand and falling into a familiar stance.

'But his Kirigakure no Jutsu is still active… what can he be doing?' Kakashi thought, readying himself.

"Kirininaru no Jutsu!" he whispered, before dispersing into mist himself.

'Oh shit.'

"Hyouton hijutsu: Makyo Hyousho!" Haku called out. The air was suddenly awash with tinkling sounds as ice hit Ice, hasty in their rush to take form. The mist condensed into the same mirrors that he used to reach his targets, but instead of one, twenty-five formed in a dome formation – fourteen on ground level, nine above that, and finally two facing each other and the ground. The formation of nine feet tall mirrors seemed to expand outwards until they left no gaps as such, blocking outside view completely. What really shocked the genin of Team 7, however, was when the image of the boy appeared in each plane.

'Chikuso!' they all unknowingly mentally cursed at once. Naruto immediately grabbed the client and sunk into the ground while Sakura and Sasuke turned back to back, each having drawn a kunai.

It was a few moments later, however, that action resumed. "Any last words?" the masked boy quietly said, voice reverberating across the closed space as seemingly all images spoke as one, raising their right hands towards the two trapped ninjas.

Sasuke inhaled deeply. "Katon-"

"Wrong choice." The ice user interrupted, and made single-handed hand-signs.

"Goryuuka!"

"Hyouton: Sensatsu Suisho!"

Naruto reappeared under the cover of trees, and immediately set to work. Three Doton: Kagebunshin appeared in identical miniature plumes of smoke, one sunk to the ground, while the other closed its eyes before frowning and growing in size and morphing out of shape at the same time. Soon, it it's place stood a giant raven, who picked the unconscious Tazuna in its talons up and shot into the air, the third clone on its back.

He almost got whiplash when he snapped his head towards the area where a distinctly male roar originated.

'Sasuke?'

He calmly seeped into the ground and surfaced in the dome. He almost stopped in the middle of surfacing when he saw what lay in front of him.

Sasuke, eyes glaring all around them, but they weren't his normal eyes. The three-tomoe form of the Sharingan replaced his black eyes. He was kneeling on the floor, arms around the prone form of Sakura, whose eyes were closed and chest lay still unbreathing.

Unbreathing.

Sakura… was dead?

Good.

She was useless. Genjutsus, unless of high enough level, was a completely worthless art against many. The only genjutsu he knew of which was worthy of being called a ninja technique was Uchiha Itachi's Tsukuyomi, and Uchiha Shisui's Kotoamatsukami. Both had godly potential, and both were in the hands of Uchiha prodigies. What did Sakura boast, but minor parlor tricks any ninja of worth could dispel?

"I will kill you!" The Uchiha roared, and immediately fainted.

Pathetic. He finally unlocked the Sharingan, supposedly going to the next level, and he passes out? Orochimaru knew that the costs of such a dojutsu were high, though, and Sasuke's reserves were… small. However, now that he unlocked the sharingan, that would change. Constantly keeping active a level 3 basic Sharingan is said to improve one's reserves and control.

 **"Sharingan!"** a familiar voice roared in Naruto's head, making him clutch it in pain. **"Those cursed eyes! Kill them all!"**

"You must have loved them dearly," The various images of Hakus said in unison, raising his hand towards Naruto in preparation for his jutsu. "if their weakened state makes you feel this conflicted."

 **"Love is for the weak!"** Kyuubi roared in his head.

"Shut… up…" Naruto spoke out shakily.

 **"Hate! Hate is what makes me strong! And I am the most powerful of all the bijuu! Power power power, hate is power! Take his power, kit!"**

"Don't talk about me… like I'm your toy…" Naruto growled, falling to his knees.

Outside the ice dome, Kakashi and Doton Kagenbunshin Naruto were faring quite well against Zabuza. Kakashi, bearer of a thousand jutsu, used a simple Fuuton: Daitoppa to blow away the mist and forced Zabuza to reform solidly. The two then engaged in a fierce battle, Zabuza using his Kubikiribocho, and Kakashi, sharingan visible, used Raiton infused kunai to battle. However, kunai did not normally conduct chakra, and forcing the action was a huge drain on his reserves.

However, he was helped by Naruto, who appeared in the wake of a localized earthquake, the destabilization of which allowed Kakashi to jam a kunai into Zabuza's left shoulder. Zabuza was then slammed away by a Go Iwa-aki projectile.

Kakashi gave Naruto a single eye-smile before jumping at his chance.

That was when he noticed that the giant bird that flew out of the forest was falling, and instead had to use a chakra-powered jump to catch his client before he crashed into the ground headfirst.

"Naruto!"

 **"Ah, but you are my toy. And until you defeat me, you will continue to be my toy, meat-bag!"**

 **Kyuubi did not know why he was trying to help his jinchuuriki, but he admitted that it felt good to let out his killing intent within the brat's subconscious. The only way the brat was going to get more interesting, however, was if he acquired more abilities and finally fought him, which meant he had to get stronger, which meant he needed more bloodlines.**

 **Granted, Kyuubi did not know how the implications of having more than one bloodline in a single vessel, but hey, it had to be interesting.**

 **"And you will not be able to defeat me unless you're stronger. Hate is the key to strength."**

"You're... wrong…"

 **"Oh am I? Then what is it, what is the answer to getting more power?!"**

"…"

 **"No answer?" Kyuubi grinned, teeth glinting full of malice in the darkness of Naruto's mindscape. "Allow me to… refresh your memory!" And with a localized flare of chakra towards the brat's memory center, a certain memory snapped back into place, the handiwork of Yamanaka Inoichi falling to pieces under the Kyuubi's might.**

A tiny blonde boy was running. Running was all he knew, it seemed.

He ran during the day, to reach places. The Hokage tower was one place he liked to go to, considering that the one of the scant number of people who did not hate him held office over there. He ran in the evening to Ichiraku's, a place he considered a second home, considering that Teuchi-ojisan and Ayame-neechan always regarded him with kind eyes.

At night, he ran from people.

Carrying sharp pitchforks, sturdy sticks, and even kitchen knives, currently, there were ten or so people running after the four-year-old. They weren't gaining any ground, however, because he was subconsciously tapping into chakra to enhance his speed. But for a four-year-old, it meant he was barely a little faster than the adult men behind him.

"Catch the demon!"

'He has to pay!"

Tears dropped freely for the young boy's eyes as he ran through dilapidated streets of the worst district in Konoha, racing through unfamiliar twists and turns just to outrun the mean people. Why did they hate him so much? What did he do wrong? He always listened to Hokage-jiji, never annyed anyone, and recently only tried to talk to other people once! Surely that did not mean he had to die?

Sadness and fear warred within his small heart, but fear won when he ran right into an alleyway with a dead end.

He looked up at the brick-wall, bewildered, and then turned around to try to dash out before the mean people came, but ran straight into one.

"Well, well, well…" the man said, grabbing him by his neck and hoisting him into the air. "What do we have here?"

"Is the demon eager to meet us?"

"Maybe he is waiting for his punishment?"

Then the man holding Naruto threw him against the wall, giving Naruto a severe concussion.

"Chain him up! Don't even want to see the demon move while we dole out our… punishment."

Then all he knew was screaming and pain.

When he woke up next, he could not see, panicking, he only belatedly felt the heavy cloth over his eyes and then relaxed, since he could feel his eyelids. He heard footsteps outside, and abruptly pretended to be asleep so that no one would hurt him anymore.

There was shouting, before the door suddenly slammed open, almost causing Naruto to jump and give himself away, before he abruptly felt himself be pressed against something soft… cloth?

"Inu, calm down and think this through." Someone said, and he recognized the voce of Hokage-jiji. "This is the best possible route for him."

"Sealing away a memory is never good for anyone!" The voice said, sounding deeper than it actually was since he was against the person's chest. The person sounded much younger than Hokage-jiji, and full of anger. "And he's four, for kami's sake! I will not allow this!"

"I am your hokage, and I command you to drop Naruto-kun now!" Hokage-jiji said, voice authoritative but… sad. "He experience was too traumatic, he needs to forget-"

"He 'needs' me!" Inu yelled, moving abruptly. "I stayed away because the grief was too much, but if such animals live in your village-"

"This is your village too, Inu." Hokage-jiji said, voice sounding… dead. What happened? Why is everyone so angry?

"I refuse to be related to such barbarians!" Inu yelled, and there were more footsteps. "They tortured a child – a four year old child! They peeled his skin off, rubbed salt into his flesh, cut his tongue, wrenched his nails and teeth out, crushed his eye-"

"Enough!" Hokage-jiji said, sounding anguished. Who did all this happen to? Naruto wished he could be there for that person. "I will listen to this no more, and neither can he."

Inu stiffened abruptly, and Naruto felt now was the right time to open his eyes.

It was him…

They were talking about him….

That was his last thought before darkness overtook him.

 **"Do you see? The so-called 'village' you wanted to fight for and under had forever treated you like a pariah, a monster, worse than trash. Without power, how will you teach them a lesson? Without power, you are as weak as your four-year-old self, clambering for recognition – pathetic."**

"Shut up…"

 **"The truth is you are pathetic!'**

"SHUT UP!"

Zabuza had only felt fear two times before in his life.

One was when the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shinchinin Shu disbanded officially, after Kisame's betrayal. He feared that he would never find a home as such as that again, but squashed the fear under a sense of revenge. Even today, he hunted Hoshigaki Kisame.

Two, was when he fought the fourth Mizukage. He feared not for his life, but for his village, the place who molded him as he was. The bloodline purge had gone too far for an already outrageous idea, and he attempted to assassinate the leader of the movement. His fear fueled his rage and even against the Jinchuuriki of the Sanbi, he had almost won, leaving a scar even in its tailed beast form as proof of the power of fear.

Now, however, it seemed another time had to be added to that list – the time when he felt a glowing orange chain fly through his chest, and a multitude of similar chains emerging through every plane of Haku's Makyo Hyosho, and felt his heart ache. Fear and sadness ran rampant in his heart, and when he thought of the boy he had come to see of as… something more, he could not deal with the guilt of knowing his pushing, his force behind the boy to advance had pushed him into subservience of such a degree that he had devoted himself to Zabuza's every whim. Why… why could he not have told him how he really felt?

While Haku was thinking similar thoughts, Kakashi had a single thought going through his mind.

"Chikusho."


	6. Obituary: Misery

Deep within Naruto, a battle of wills was underway.

The Mofuko and the Hyouton were both bloodlines. As such, they were a dominant trait in any single person. The prevalence of two bloodline required n enormous strength of will and conviction, something that was broken within Naruto after the onset of a single suppressed memory.

As such, the bloodline gene within Naruto already bore two imprints – the Uzumaki Fuinkusarri and the Mofuko. Thus, Naruto's genetic structure itself was fighting the onset of another bloodline.

When the fight reached his spiritual energy, however, something… snapped.

The Hyouton energy split into two parts – knowledge and power. The knowledge part held the deeper meaning behind the element, while the power part held the capability to perform it. While the knowledge part slipped into Naruto's brain effortlessly, the power part embossed itself into another part of the Uzumaki progeny.

 **"Hmm? What is this?"** The kyuubi questioned, roused from his sleep by a tickling sensation along his tails. When he looked back, howoever, he choked on air.

His tails were slowly turning white.

 **"What… what is this? Why is it so-"** The Kyuubi abruptly cut off, and then began to thrash in pain.

 **"NO! WHAT IS HAPPENING? THAT BRAT, I WILL-"**

But it was then that his brain kicked into nderstanding.

No single Shinobi can house more than a single bloodline. Since Naruto's Uzumaki Fuinkusari was a repressive bloodline, it allowed the more active Mofuko bloodline to slide in with ease. However, the Hyouton was another active bloodline, and in order to allow Naruto to use it without his body wasting away in the process, it was clinging to the greater chakra source within the boy.

The Kyuubi's primary element was wind, a component of the Hyouton. Wind attracted wind, and so the Hyouton chakra, instead of being expelled latched on to the Kyuubi instead.

As it felt the Katon within itself be forcibly ejected and Suiton take its place, the Kyuubi lay cursing its blonde Jinchuuriki for this torture, and itself for being the catalyst for the cause of this in the first place.

When Naruto awoke, it was in the sewer he had come to associate with his mindscape.

It was… different, however.

Instead of the damp ground, frost now coated the floor, and icicles formed along the ceiling of the wide passageway. As he walked on, it grew progressively colder until he approached the site of the Kyuubi's imprisonment.

There, he was quite… astonished at the sight beyond the pale cream bars.

"You look, different."

And indeed, where he once felt that the Kyuubi was once gigantically orange, now an ice blue version of the fox sat in it's place, meditating. When it opened its eyes, the Kyuubi showed navy blue irises instead of its past crimson red.

 **"That would be your doing, I'm afraid."** The Kyuubi said, its voice a clearer, smother baritone.

"What do you-" Naruto began, but silenced himself when he realized the implications of the Kyuubi's words. "So you're the Kyuubi no Hyoukitsune, now?"

 **"DO not take this lightly."** The Kyuubi growled, and the space grew dramatically cold. **"You have changed an aspect of my very nature. I would normally crush you between two of my fingers."**

"Does it sadden you that these bars lie between you and your revenge?" Naruto asked, slipping into a battle stance. No matter whether the cage was in place or not, preparation is better than falling.

 **"Quite the opposite. Associating with you is clearly more interesting and less painful to my mind."** The Kyuubi said, one corner of its gigantic maw slipping into a grin, its ice-bue tails swishing in delight. **"No jinchuuriki has ever managed to change the nature of their bijuu before. But then again, no jinchuuriki ever bore the Uzumaki Fuinkusari before. You are an interesting gaki, even to me."**

Naruto weighed the words in his mind, before smirking. "So, you're tamed with… entertainment?"

 **"Being sealed into someone usually does not brook any room for entertainment."** The fox bit back, voice almost teasing, before slipping into irritation. **"And the… person who sealed you into me, he sealed only the Yang half of my chakra within you. The Yin half of my chakra is currently without a mind and in the stomach of the death god. I feel… fundamentally incomplete."**

Naruto would have shuddered at the implication. Having half of your chakra permanently lost seemed… excessive. However, this explained his healing prowess, since Yang chakra was associate with physical energy. At to that his Uzumaki heritage… "How do I get it back?"

At the fox's surprised look, however, Naruto further elaborated. "A win against you would ring hollow were you not at your full strength.

The Kyuubi gazed at its jinchuuriki with unfathomable eyes, before beginning. **"In order to unseal my chakra, you will have to bring back my sealer from the death, which is impossible with my will alone. However, there exists a temple in the name of the Shinigami n Uzushiogakure…"**

As Naruto listened to Kyuubi's plan, he grinned a feral grin that would have struck fear into the hearts of even the most battle-hardened shinobi.

When Naruto phased into reality, it was to the wooden ceiling of an unfamiliar house. He sighed, and sat up, popping his joints. The Kyuubi and he had negotiated an agreement wherein he would be fed more of the Kyuubi's chakra until he revived his other half, after which he would gain a secret jutsu even the Uzumaki did not know. He wasn't so naïve as to think the fox would hold up his end of the bargain absolutely, but the fact was that the added influx of chakra was speeding up his regeneration power and increasing his own base reserves as his chakra coils swelled to accommodate the added chakra. The Kyuubi must be desperate to regain its Yin chakra.

He stood up, and dressed in his uniform, which had been washed and folded neatly. The gauntlets he took from the Demon Brothers lay next to the pile, and he hesitated in wearing them. He had not used them much, and forming handseals and grabbing Zabuza's legs had proven difficult with them. So instead, he drew a sealing scroll from his weapon's pouch and sealed them in, then made his way downstairs.

He was mildly surmised to see Sakura alive and well, helping an older girl to cook in the kitchen. It was daylight out, which meant it was around afternoon, if the shadows were any indication. Instead of greeting her with words, however, he withdrew the scroll from his weapons ouch and flicked it lightly at her, scoring a hit with Sakura's head, who turned around at that.

She saw no-one, but made move to walk forward when her foot touched a scroll.

'A sealing scroll?' she wondered, then saw the Uzumaki swirl on the left side.

"From Naruto? I must tell sensei he is awake!"

Naruto walked out of the house. Kakashi and Sasuke were nowhere to be seen, so instead Naruto made way towards the forest. He cited luck, however, when he stumbled upon a football field sized clearing not ten minutes away.

He drew his hands into a familiar cross-sign, and six hundred clones popped into existence.

'Hmm… I wasted a little chakra on that one. My control is slipping.' All of them thought simultaneously. Then the original spoke. "Hundred of you take to the trees outside of here and practice with Zabuza's Kirigakure and Kirininaru no jutsu. While our Dochu Senko is more comfortable, we'll be at a loss if we were to fight on water. Two hundred of you, practice the collective suiton jutsus we got from Zabuza and Haku – this includes the Suiryuudan, the Suiro, the Daibakufu, the Suidan, the Bakusui Shoha, the Suijinheki, the Sensatsu Suisho, the Mizubunshin, and the Mizuryuu no Mai. Another two hundred will sort through the hyouton jutsus Haku knew and read from the scroll Zabuza procured from Yukigakure – the Hyousenbon, the Hyouro, the Hyougan Domu, the Tsubame Fubuki, the Haryu Moko, the Roga Nadare, and the Hyoken. Fifty of you will work on incorporating the saihyoken into our normal taijutsu, and another fifty will work on incorporating Hyouton chakra in our kagebunshins, while the rest of you work on getting the Makyo Hyousho."

"But boss, all those techniques are chakra intensive. Won't it be counterproductive?" One clone spoke.

"What are you, deaf? Kyuubi is shoving in about twenty five percent more than his chakra normally mixes into us into us, so we should be relatively fine." Another said, crossing his hands arrogantly.

"NO talking, only more working. Scatter!" Naruto commanded and instantly clones sped away to their assignments.

After the first clone dispelled from the Makyo Hyousho group, Naruto stopped meditating on Zabuza and Haku's memories to test out one of Haku's theories. Naruto formed a mirror of ice in front of him, and stepped through. While the window still existed to the outside world behind his person, navy blue darkness surrounded him from every other direction. He concentrated all but the last few slivers of chakra necessary to maintaining his clone jutsu into visualizing the front of the house he walked out of, and pushed the image of the place, and molded hyouton chakra into the void in front of him.

Instantly, the mirror appeared in front of him that led to that location. Shaking in equal parts exhaustion and excitement, he stepped through and ended up in front of the house. He looked back to see the ice mirror still there, and the first mirror before that. Instantly, he created a shadow clone and dispelled it, to share this information with all his clones. That done, and now being dangerously low on chakra, he dispelled both his created ice mirrors, and walked to edge of a nearby cliff that overlooked the sea meeting land in the form of a river, and sat down on crossed legs, sitting in a meditative trance to both restore his chakra and sort through memories.

His eyes opened when he felt a presence right next to him.

"You know," Kakashi began sitting down next to him and putting his book away, "training that way is going to stress the memory center severely. There's a reason that jutsu is in the Kinjutsu scroll."

"That's where the kyuubi actually comes in handy." Naruto said, eyes opening. His cerulean blue was much lighter than before, but Kakashi said nothing to point it out. "The combined healing factor applies to my brain as well, creating more nerves and hastening synapses so that I can handle the stress permanently. In short, if I ever stress myself, my body will simply adapt so that I can overcome it. The Mofuko bloodline also helps in this regard."

Kakashi was silent, staring over the blue, before he spoke. "Naruto, about last week-"

"Last week?" Naruto interrupted, turning to look at Kakashi fully. "I thought it was two, three days ago at maximum."

"You've been asleep for a week and two days, Naruto-kun." The grey-haired shinobi said, rolling his visible eye. Naruto, seated on his right rolled his in response. "Your Uzumaki Fuinkusari completely depends on your emotions. We need to get you a better handle on them."

"I hope you don't mean having a Yamanaka seal away a memory of mine, sensei." Naruto whispered. "Or should I call you Inu-san?"

Kakashi jerked back as if slapped, and looked at Naruto with a single wide eye. "How-"

"Before … assimilating Zabuza and Haku, the seal on the memory broke, perhaps due to heightened emotions. When I mentally examined my memory center, there were three other such seals." Naruto said power returning to his voice. "I want these removed as soon as we reach the village."

"Of course, Naruto-kun." Kakashi swiftly agreed, then sighed heavily. "I didn't want that for you, you know."

"I know." Naruto said, then silence reigned between the two for a while.

Kakashi took this time to ponder. Sitting next to Naruto was surprisingly calming. It was like the boy held so much chaos within himself, that he sucked in the turbulent energies from outside too. He said nothing as the younger ninja lay his head against his shoulder and just stared out over the blue, both feeing calm and at peace for the first in a very long time.

"You know, Inu doesn't suit you very much."

"Is that so?"

"I think Koinu is a much better fit."

Naruto and Kakashi would both forever deny it to anyone else that the statement was followed by a very intense tickle match.

It was that same day in the dead of the night that Naruto snapped his eyes open. He stood up from his bed, and quickly made a Doton Kagebunshin to take his place. The original then went ahead and began packing his gear properly, careful to make as little sound as possible.

Assimilating Zabuza and Haku had been both a boon and a curse. While Suiton was easily malleable by its very nature and thus the easiest element to learn alongside Katon, thus allowing his to master their jutsu repertoire in one day (one day times seven hundred is seven hundred days, meaning almost two years), their ambitions were… suffocating.

Apparently, Zabuza had attempted a coup on a frankly disturbing Mizukage Yagura who had begun to simply wipe out any who wielded bloodlines. This had snowballed from the latent hate aimed towards bloodline users from the non-bloodline inhabitants of the land as a whole, the catalyst being an attack by the Kaguya clan that left the entire clan extinct. Whatever it had started as, the movement saw several bloodline ninja fleeing from Kiri under cover, losing their identities forever to retain their breath.

Assimilating Zabuza seemed to have instilled a strong sense of retribution, and such instincts were subconsciously enforced, thus a notion Naruto could not simply throw away. Since the Fuuinkusari was a bloodline that deeply engrained the target's traits, Naruto decided that simply going through with what he had in mind would be the best way to get rid of Zabuza's patriotism, something that was seemingly amplified by Haku's devotion.

But before that, he had something more important to do.

Donning his gear, Naruto leapt out of the window and straight into a Makyo Hyousho that travelled up to about five hundred meters above Gatou's hideout.

Quickly activating his Keijugan, Naruto brought his hands in a familiar cross seal, creating about hundred Hyouton Kagebunshin about him, spanning the distance across the wooden structure below him that was hidden in the treetops. Silently, he activated the Chokajugan on all of his clones, who deactivated their own Keijugan, and began to plummet towards the base at high speeds. Then he smirked, and to lengthen his moment of satisfaction, all his clones spoke as one, "Hijutsu: Tajyuu Hyoubakudan Kohai!"

The poor souls beneath him did not even have time to react. Each Naruto clone impacted the fortress with a near deafening boom, then immediately exploded into a cold miniature blizzard. Not a single scream was heard, but all who were present – be they Gatou and his men, or any prisoner they had under hold, died immediately either from the crushing weight or the flash freeze. The Hyouton chakra n the area then condensed, and wove itself into a towering kunai sculpture.

Even Naruto himself was awed by the display, but let nothing show on his face in spite of him being the sole person present. "With this power, the truth will be mine to behold."


	7. Obituary: Mizu no Yagura

When Kakashi woke, it was to sudden shouts and exclamations from the village. Being ANBU trained, Kakashi was used to waking up at the slightest sounds, and this was a veritable racket. Immediately donning his signature mask and strapping his kunai pouch to his person, the copy-nin leaped out of the window and onto Tazuna's roof with ease. He then froze in place when he felt faint wisps of chakra in the air… very familiar chakra. He gazed towards to source, and his jaw fell open despite the mask being in place.

Towering above the trees, a bluish-white construct that clearly looked like a kunai was extremely visible. And considering the distance at which it was, it truly had to be monstrous in size. Only one person he knew had this chakra signature, so he leapt forward and use a ninja-wire-attached-kunai to swing into Naruto's room through his open window.

He spotted the blonde on the bed, sleeping as if dead to the world. Kakashi's visible eye narrowed, then noted that the window was open for him to be able to swing through in the first place.

'Naruto… what did you do?' he thought, before leaping out of the window and into his room again. If he was going to check out the site, he needed to be prepared for any outcome, and thus needed his gear.

The deathly quiet that surrounded the village of Kirigakure was only accented by the near tangible cloud of despair that hung over the village. Despite the fact that there was no structural damage, the mist that hung in the air that was almost comforting at first, induced claustrophobia in many. Despite this, or maybe because of, no one noticed a simple grey-brown shape emerge from the cloudy sky. The shape came closer to the village, revealing itself to be a young blonde boy. Said boy did not stop his approach as he neared the ground, sinking deep within.

'Reaching Kirigakure was a breeze with Zabuza's memories and Haku's Makyo Hyousho,' thought Naruto, amused, 'but Yagura's chakra signature isn't in the Mizukage's tower anymore. Using a stronger Chakra ping will cause me to be detected. While identifying who is a sensor in this village would be useful in the long run, now it would be detrimental for me, especially since I don't want to be discovered…'

To that end, he raised the cape he wore to cover his face nose-down, and made his way towards the coast.

 **"Naruto, come see me for a minute."** The Kyuubi's voice suddenly sounded, halting Naruto's advance. **"I have something that may interest you."**

Tempted to ignore the bijuu, Naruto instead sighed and stopped his advance, staying beneath the ground but drifting into a meditative state.

His eyes were physically closed, but they now saw a wide room, encrusted with ice. He was brought in front of the Kyuubi.

"Hai, Kyuubi-sama?"

 **"The way I see it, you're only interesting as long as you're strong."** The kyuubi drawled in a bored tone. Naruto seethed, but let nothing show. **"Thus, I thought about your primary bloodline, the Uzumaki Fuinkusari, and I have come to an... epiphany."**

"Oh?"

 **"The activation of the bloodline is directly linked to the emotional centers of your brain, which is unusual. In my previous host, an Uzumaki like you, the kekkei genkai was even able to manifest outside of emotional upheaval, thus granting the user another weapon in the form of the chains. However, you seem to have inherited only the impression assimilating aspect of it. As such, manifesting the ability would take a toll on you, but the regenerative capability you seemed o have adopted from me keep it at bay. What if I were to tell you that I could grant you control of it whenever you wished?"**

Without skipping a beat, Naruto asked, "What is the catch?"

The bijuu laughed uproariously. **"Runt, life is a catch! But indeed, to be able to access that capability, you will have to give me a tiny bit more control – you'll have to erode a portion of the seal. This will allow me to influence your emotions – inducing phantom sensations where there aren't, and lift you into intense feelings almost instantaneously. However, I can only influence your anger, and nothing else."**

Naruto thought on it for all but a fraction of a second. Assimilating more ninja meant precious more abilities. He could assimilate a ninja adept in the mind arts and deal with the repercussions later. For now…

In a fluid moment, Naruto walked straight up the center bar where the two 'doors' of the prison closed. Carefully, he ripped of a quarter of the seal from the upper right corner.

"I accept, Kyuubi-sama." He said, voice filled with anticipation in spite of himself.

 **"Very well. I'd recommend trying this out before you go on to face Isobu, as any advantage you have will be vital ton your success."**

"Isobu?"

 **"The sanbi no kyodaigame, Isobu, is sealed within Mizu no Yagura, the Mizukage. As all tailed beasts share a collective deeper conscious, this I know. However, as of late his node has… corrupted. It is as if something is shielding him – or separating him – from the rest of us."**

Naruto digested that information, then narrowed his eyes at the Kyuubi. "You wish for me to assimilate him."

 **"But of course!"** Th darkness beyond the cages was suddenly pierced by a wide row of teeth grinning. **"Isobu being eliminated and then assimilated into us will only make us both stronger! Additionally, I wish to see what effect does your kekkei-genkai have on us tailed beasts, and whether or not possessing his Yin chakra will allow me to somehow recall my own."**

Naruto weighed the argument. The current Mizukage was known for his Suiton, and using its reflective properties in battle. Combining those with his Hyouton… "I accept. But in return, you must promise to not influence my emotional center unless needed. If that promise breaks, Kyuubi-sama, instead of wreaking havoc externally, I will end my own life, causing you to fade from existence."

As Naruto left his mindscape, he only heard laughter. **"You are certainly interesting, gaki."**

Back in Nami no Kuni, Kakashi sighed as he observed the damage. The entire region of the forest was blown apart, as if by a great force. In the frosted ground, the Konoha Jounin could easily spot wood wreckage, amongst the odd limb or head here and there. And in the center of it all, the towering kunai made of ice. It didn't seem to melt at all. The man was stunned, that Naruto could do… this. Clones were something else – they evenly divided chakra only, and returned half the amount on dispelling, so that should have been easy for Naruto. Incorporating chakra into his clones could be something he picked up from Shiro. But manipulating a relatively new element into a shape outside of a jutsu? Unless, of course, this was simply a supersized version of something in the Hunter nin's arsenal.

Sasuke and Sakura would not be able to keep up at this rate. Naruto, at least now, could give Kakashi a run for his money if he really wanted to. How much would he progress more?

Sakura had yet to awaken the Kurama clan's bloodline capability of manifesting the damage of their illusions as reality. The dangerous situation Sasuke was in yesterday should have awoken with his sharingan, but the famed eye could not copy bloodline abilities, only the basic elemental ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. As such, Kakashi could only do so much to accelerate their training.

Aside from teaching genins shinobi knick knacks, jounin instructors shouldn't do much to teach their genin. That was the basic rule of being a ninja, one had to do their own training on their own time and of their own volition.

However… there was something he could teach them. Usually, this was done after team members reached chunin rank, but he threw that notion out of the window. A shinobi must use everything in their disposal, and Kakashi would be damned if he wasn't going to expand on what they knew.

With a resolve, he leapt away from the ground and towards Tazuna's house as he spotted the first civilians through the trees. When they returned to the village, Kakashi would outfit them with one of the last dregs of his knowledge.

'There, that one would make a good first test.'

Naruto, currently under the cover of trees, studied the man who had followed his largest chakra pulse. A blue-haired individual, garbed in a green haori and a black eyepatch currently had his eye closed and hands in a ram hand-sign.

"You can come out now. I know you're there, Konoha nin." The man said, raising his head.

'What kind of an idiot gives up an advantage like that?' Naruto scoffed. Instead of complying however, he took in a steady breath. 'Now, Kyuubi-sama.'

 **"Kukukukuku, let go, Gaki."**

Suddenly, Naruto was filled with an unbridled amount of rage. Memories were brought to the forefront of his mind – how the village treated him, Shiro's words, the Sandaime's lies…

There was a sudden gurgle, and Naruto opened his eyes to see his Fuinkusari stabbing straight through the blue-haired man. With a frown of concentration, he mentally grasped the end of the chain and tugged.

 **"I think I can ease the flow of his abilities into you."** The Kyuubi said, and for a while Naruto simply closed his eyes, until he heard a deep chuckle within the recesses of his mind. **"Gaki, the guy had a dojutsu!"**

Naruto frowned. "Kirigakure isn't known for any dojutsu."

 **"Hmm… His Byakugan was a spoil of battle against a pure Hyuuga, in the past Shinobi World War. Due to it being an implantation, the DNA strain is really weak, but I can regenerate it to its full potential with time."**

"Very well. In the meantime, I will apprehend Isobu-sama."

 **"Be careful. During the duration of assimilating this man, you will not be able to create or maintain any clones. However, I will push more chakra into you through the weakened seal to compensate."**

"No clones?" Naruto asked, then sighed. "They'll know, now."

There was a sudden squawk of surprise from Sakura as 'Naruto' dispelled with in poof of smoke and slight pebbles.

Sakura, in the middle of performing a water-walking and leaf levitating exercise, lost concentration for a mere moment, yet that was enough to see her fall into the lake outside Tazuna's house. Sasuke and Kakashi, who were discussing bomb techniques, snapped their heads towards the familiar technique dispersal sound. The Uchiha seemed surprised, if anything. The jounin's visible eye narrowed.

'If that was not the original then… Naruto… where are you?'

With Ao's reconnaissance knowledge at his disposal, Naruto made his way to the reef visible in the sea from the northern shores of Kirigakure. As to protect his identity, he had removed his clothes and tossed them through a Makyo Hyousho into Tazuna's room, keeping only his leggings. He pulled on Ao's haori over him, and unfolded his headband so that it's with was enough to cover his lower face from the tip of his nose to his mouth.

Seeing no other way to scan his surroundings, he sent out a weak chakra pulse, and it impacted something very… familiar.

Naruto shot out of the ground just as something gigantic impacted it. From his stationary position in the air, he saw it to be a gray scaled tale with a rough appearance. It soon retracted into a rather young looking individual, but he wasn't surprised with all the intel he had on him.

"Mizu no Yagura." Naruto intoned, vice void of any emotion. "I have come to ask that you let down your foolish crusade against bloodlines."

The voice that emanated from the boy in front of him was nearly in tone with his own. "And just who are you?"

"I… my name is unimportant." Naruto said, tilting his head to the side. "What is important is that-"

"Bloodlines are tools." Yagaura said, raising his right hand. With a single half-dragon hand-sign, a black staff-like weapon with a hook-like structure and flower on its one end materialized in a poof of smoke. "When tools may harm their user in accident, they must be discarded."

"You are talking about the deaths of many. The complete neutering of raw potential that could be unmatched."

"I care not for such trivialities. I alone am enough for Kirigakure to prevail."

 **"I need a few more minutes before you can assimilate him, gaki. Keep him busy till then."**

"Then it is my duty to prove you wrong." Naruto intoned, floating higher into the air.

All was silent for a few moments, while the two ninja sized each other up. Two sets of eyes met, wills indomitable, and then, just like that, the moment broke.

Naruto charged forward, intend on ending this as quickly as possible. However, he stopped midair and tensed when the Mizukage rotated his staff a full 360 degrees and materialized a perfectly circular mirror made of water.

"Suiton: Mizukagami no Jutsu!"

'Ah, the famed mirror manipulation.' Naruto thought, then charged when his reflection emerged as some sort of construct. He Clashed with his doppelganger, already calculating new strategies.

Meanwhile, Yagura produced three water clones, who took up a triangle formation and brandished their staves in a threatening manner. Slamming their staves on the ground, one by one they intoned, "Suiton: Suichu Hoi no jutsu! Suiton: Suijinheki! Suiton: Mizu Kekkai no jutsu!"

While Naruto dodged the attacks of his doppelganger, he spotted one clone melting into a near spherical water dome, one clone transforming into a circular wall of water, and another dispersing into eight pillars of water than began encircling the outer barrier.

 **"Deal with this pathetic excuse of yourself and break those protections! He's gathering a lot of chakra, almost half of what Isobu has! You won't be able to deal with a jutsu like that without delaying everything significantly!"**

Naruto growled, mentally seething. This doppelganger knew all his jutsus and movements, and dealing with it was becoming a real headache. Unless he developed a new jutsu…

Naruto walked through all the ideas he had so far. With his new Hyouton, had require a lot of water…

Well, he was on the shores of the sea after all.

He broke off mid-combo and gave an acute kick to the doppelganger's midsection, but wasn't able to dispel it. In any case, he shushined to a few hundred meters into the sea, and stood upon the water. Being the first time he was creating and then utilizing a new jutsu in combat at once, he attempted to pour every ounce of his concentration into the formation of this new jutsu.

Before he could complete it however, he heard a deeper voice intone, " **Suiton: Hyaku Suiryuukagami no Mai!** "

His eyes snapped open, concentration falling short. His opponent was now cloaked in familiar crimson bijuu chakra with two tails behind him. The fluctuations that the cloak induced in his network must have interfered with his previous jutsu, for the doppelganger had dispelled. The protections remained however, and no further changes in the surroundings were made.

When he felt shifting behind him however, he turned, gasped, and took a reflexive step back, for the gazes of a hundred reflective water dragons were trained on him from the ocean.

 **"Hajime!"** Yagura intoned, and himself leapt forward, and with him the water around him as well.

Naruto poured a lot of chakra into his limbs to dodge, and oh boy, dodge he had to. For every time one of the dragons reflected him, another doppelganger emerged. Now he knew why Yagura had allowed the other to dispel. After all, now he had several more! Naruto dodged to the best of his ability, but accumulated a lot of cuts from Hyouken and bruises from Kengan.

 **"Naruto! I have finished catalyzing the Byakugan, what was taking a majority of the time. Activate it now! Your shadow clones are now available, and in another few minutes, you may assimilate him!"**

Naruto faltered in dodging while the flood of information on the Byakugan and the ability itself overwhelmed his mind. Normally, implanted users do not have much information on their inductions, but Kurama had managed to snag the DNA of the pure Hyuuga from the bloodline impression from the eye, and was thus able to procure a Main House Hyuuga's knowledge.

The combined force of a Doppelganger's Iwakami no Unarigoe and the crushing force of three dragons would have been enough to crush his bones. However, now armed wth Hyuuga techniques, Naruto simply spun midair and sent out chakra from all his tenketsu, creating a sphere of pure rotating chakra using the Hakkeshou Kaiten.

He closed his eyes, and sent chakra to them.

When they next opened, the sclera was black, with pale orange irises. The veins on the outer sides of his eyes were bulging in the normal Hyuuga manner.

He catalogued the doppelgangers, and realized that if he simply didn't let his reflection linger long enough on the dragons, there would be no doppelganger to fight at all. Overloading his Keijugan with Kyuubi's chakra, he moved backwards so fast that one would think he was never there in the first place.

"You are within the field of my Hakke." He whispered, and a hundred shadow clones appeared around him, falling into an approximate midair variant of the Jyuuken stance.

They all then shot forwards.

"Hakke Niishou!

Yonshou!

Hachishou!

Juu Rokushou!

Sanju Niishou!

Rokuju Yonshou!

Hyakku Niju Hachishou!

Hakke Sanbyaku Goju Rokushou!" They all proclaimed as one.

For a moment, everything was still, then the doppelgangers and dragons all fell into the water below.

Naruto's clones vanished, but the boy in question was far from being even lightly winded.

Yagura, who was also hit twice by the set, collapsed to one knee, completely free of bijuu chakra. Normally, even a flicker of bijuu chakra would be enough to reopen one's tenketsu, albeit temporarily and painfully, but Yagura had expended a lot of Isobu's chakra. As such, the man was left with a bare sliver of Isobu's power, only enough for…

Suddenly, he was enveloped in a gigantic sphere of crimson chakra.

'Anytime now, Kyuubii-sama!' Naruto mentally growled, creating five hundred kagebunshin.

 **'I need thirty more seconds, gaki!'** The Kyuubi answered, voice sounding … haggard. **'I'm giving you more of my chakra, use it to hold him off!'**

Feeling the sudden influx of Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto could barely even feel his eyes changing, the near transparent pale orange pupil of his mutated Byakugan transforming into black slits. Instead, he made the kage bunshin cross-seal again, transferring some Hyouton chakra into his clones, who then began to transform into ravens. This happened in the span of two seconds.

The original Naruto closed his eyes in concentration as the ravens sped forth towards the sphere of chakra, intent on killing Yagura before it exploded, Sanbi be damned. The raven clones all morphed into ice midflight using their hyouton chakra in combination with his Mofuku bloodline, mad possible with the addition of Kyuubi's chakra. The ravens then seemed to freeze midflight, before glowing.

"Hijutsu: Hyouton : Hyouhane Danmaku!"

The ravens suddenly exploded in a shower of feathers. Naruto, using the Byakugan that each raven possessed, was able to direct his feathers appropriately into the spiraling sphere of malevolent chakra to impact Yagura, the knowledge of the Hakkeshou Kaiten helping him tertiarily.

The sphere slowed, halted, and then dispersed, showing a blood-soaked Yagura. The transformation was incomplete, but he had the skin color of Isobu with the same right eye. Additionally, three scaled tails laid limp on the ground behind him.

Seemingly shocked, the Yondaime Mizukage fell to the ground on one knee, driving several ice needle-like feathers deeper into his leg.

 **'Now, gaki!'**

A single chain shot out of Naruto's outstretched hand, and sped right through the stomach of the Yondaime Mizukage. Another shout out of his left, and shot through right the small space between his brows.

 **'The added presence of Isobu will see you knocked out for quite a while. As soon as you finish pulling, phase back to where you think you will be safe. You will awaken mentally when I have dealt with the giant turtle.'**

Mentally nodding, Naruto braced himself, and pulled. At the ends of the chain, along with Yagura's white silhouette, was another blood-red silhouette of a similar shape. When it reached Naruto, he gasped and coughed, getting the impression he was drowning.

 **'I won't be able to hold back the unconsciousness for long, and I don't fancy dying. People are approaching, so leave now!'**

"Halt there! Who goes?"

"He defeated the Mizukage!"

"He's got to be the one who killed Ao!"

"That's a leaf headband!"

Naruto roared with the effort it took to create a Makyo Hyousho, and fell into it, almost passing out in the dimension in between. Not knowing what would happen if he were to sleep here, he expended all of his effort into creating another mirror into Tazuna's house, but instead opened it to the forest nearby.

The last thing he remembered seeing was a flash of untidy white hair and a red eye.


	8. Obituary: Anonymity

When Naruto awoke, mentally, at least, he was in a familiar chamber. Present in front of the Kyuubi's seal, he stood from his kneeling position.

 **"Finally."** The Kyuubii sighed, emerging from the darkness. " **I was beginning to believe the process of my 'death' would begin any moment."** He said, with a smirk.

"Your faith in me is astounding." Naruto deadpanned, then noted the being with a critical eye. Kyuubi's furr had dulled, taking on a grayish tinge, and spike-like protrusions were visible from his shoulders down to his front paw/hands, along his spine, and on his tails. "I believe you have assimilated Isobu?"

The being grinned. **"Who would have thought the bijuu can truly die in the sense of the word? Indeed, Isobu is no more. Only his chakra, n all it's pathetic nature, is within me. As you can see, it has brought about minor changes in my appearance – although not as painful a s the first transformation."**

Naruto would have winced if he felt guilty. He did not. "Was absorbing his impression the reason you deemed it appropriate for me to be knocked out?"

 **"If you recall, your first assimilations saw you knocked out as well."** Kyuubi pointed out. **"While I can act as a buffer and filter the memories and abilities you gain from assimilating a human, a bijuu is a different story entirely. While his chakra was a mere insignificant spec in comparison to mine, Isobu's memories and thoughts were… difficult to erase."**

Naruto nodded. "As should be expected. Even the most seemingly insignificant existence bears some eight of credibility after all."

 **"I never took you for being so philosophical."**

"Being the container of a thousand-year-old demon does that to you. Why have I not noticed the influx of Isobu's memories, and only Yagura's?"

 **"We bijuu have secrets of our own, gaki. Do not forget that. However, something I saw in the other brat's memories troubles me greatly."**

"The Sharingan. Why is it that you hate that dojutsu so much, Kyuubi-sama?"

The supposed 'demon' fox regarded him in contemplation, before speaking clearly. **"By releasing a portion of your seal, you have exhibited trust, in spite of what you believe in, those 'assurances'. Nevertheless, whatever you see it as, I believe it only fair in this… agreement that I share some trust of my own."**

Naruto plopped of the freezing-cold damp ground in a gesture of granting one's full attention.

 **"On the day you were born, your mother, and my previous host, Uzumaki Kushina, underwent great pain, obviously. Pain, especially one as… intimate and internalized as one of childbirth, weakens any Jinchuuriki seal. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the very same masked man you remember from Yagura's memories took control over me using the genjutsu prowess of the Sharingan, bolstered by the fact that he had awakened a higher version. He claimed himself to be Uchiha Madara, but I have been under that man's control before, and both the governing sensation and the chakra signature felt not the same."**

Naruto, face expressionless, closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. While the Kyuubi could feel the roiling emotions of his jinchuuriki through the weakened portion of the seal, he refrained from commenting on it.

"Is there any way to provide you a resistance to being controlled by the Sharingan?"

To say the Kyuubi would be surprised would be like saying 'the ocean is big' – a massive understatement. **"Why would you care for that? We can negate each other's genjutsu problem if and when it crops up."**

"I dislike leaving lose ends." Naruto stated, but both of them knew it was a lie.

 **"The only counter to a Sharingan is another Sharingan. And the last of those are beyond your reach. One, for Uchiha Sasuke is your comrade, and you aren't powerful enough to take on the entire leaf village and win, especially with certain talented individuals you probably know about. The second, because even with all your abilities, Uchiha Itachi is armed with a weapon that will not kill, but seal away your prowess entirely, leaving you aching, vulnerable, and incapable of carrying out your dream. Addtionally, it may also seal me away."**

"There is another. Shiro's memories tell us of an individual named Danzo, who traded with Orochimaru for a prosthetic hand made from the cells of the Shodaime Hokage to implant multiple Sharingan."

 **"I do not know how Senju DNA would interact with my presence, since the very element of Mokuton seeks to bind and restrain any bijuu chakra. Be wary, and keep this Danzo as a last resort. Your primary goal should be to become stronger and eventually defeat Uchiha Itachi."**

"How does one counter a weapon that can seal anything?"

 **"With a weapon that penetrates anything."**

"You are referring to Orochimaru's Kusanagi."

 **"That blade is as much his as the water in the sea belongs to you. Its previous holder is dead, but his soul lives on. Treat it with respect."**

"Very well. The Kusanagi no Tsurugi. Defeating the orochi-senin will not be an easy task."

 **"Which is why you must get stronger."** The bijuu pointed out.

"I will attempt to gather as many unique traits as possible, and endeavor to master their use in combat."

 **"That will not be enough."** The fox mused aloud, then voiced his thoughts further. **"I believe you must foray into the possibility of signing a summoning contract. While I do possess one, its costs and uses are much more than you can handle at the moment. Instead, I will have you ask your leader for the hand-sign combination that reveals one's most suited contract, should they have the aptitude for it. I certainly sense the capability in you, but I know not the combination."**

Naruto nodded. "Very well. Will the possibility of summoning alone be enough to catapault me to a higher level?"

The Kyuubi shook its head. **"It's not the summoning itself, but the connection you must observe. When the first contracts were forged, the resident of the realm giving into a resident of your realm educated the user on their realm's techniques. The first recorded example amongst your people is your Shodaime Hokage, who forged a contract with beings called 'Ents' from a realm called 'Middle earth', who influence and 'sage mode' he used in his Mokuton Hijutsu: Shinsu Senju. However, he refrained from summoning them due to their wish not to set foot in a world which had my type of chakra, for an inconceivable reason. Such otherworldly powers may either complement or be in opposition to your chakra coils, so it's mostly on luck."**

Naruto nodded, then felt his mind getting darker around him.

 **"Someone is waking you up, gaki. Remember, obtain the hand-sign sequence before long."**

Naruto's eyes awoke to an unfamiliar white ceiling. He frowned, and looked around.

He was dressed in hospital scrubs, which meant this was Konoha General. He disregarded Kakashi who sported the Kubkiribocho on his back and Hiruzen who stood on his left side, to look at his right, out the window, and confirm his suspicion.

"I was out for the rest of the mission, then?" he asked, and his voice was raspy, indicating disuse.

Both elder men were silent for a minute, looking at him with equal measures of concern and disbelief, before Hiruzen sighed and spoke, "For two weeks, actually. One of which was spent back in Nami no Kuni, and the other here. Kakashi-kun carried you the way back, I believe."

"Arigatou, Kakashi-sensei."

"Although I would like you to rest a while and recuperate, the council is demanding a… hearing, of sorts." Hiruzen said, looking ever so dismayed. "They seem to have caught wind of several… events, this past month, and want to dole out their punishment in person."

Naruto arched an eyebrow. "May I know what are my crimes?"

"Capturing the tailed beast from another country. Leaving behind mission parameters. Assaulting the leader of another hidden village." Hiruzen listed off from memory.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "How have they heard of these events?"

"So you did commit these?" Kakashi asked, speaking for the first time.

"Not entirely." Naruto waved him off. "How did they hear of these events?"

"There was a Bingo Book operative in the area who witnessed the entire battle." Hiruzen said, withdrawing a Bingo Book from Mizu no Kuni, one that looked relatively new, and flipped a few pages in before handing it over. "You have also been given a moniker."

Naruto gazed at the page in consternation. The picture was of the moment he launched his Hyoutonn Hijutsu, Hyouhane Danmaku. The details were of course, incomplete.

'Name: Uzumaki Naruto

Title: Konohagakure no Akuma.

Rank: S-rank.

Age: 13

Affiliation: Konoha

Eye Color: Ice Blue.

Identifying features: Unique shade of blood red hair, three whisker marks on each cheek, unnaturally pale skin.

Height: 157cm.

Skill Ranks: Ninjutsu – SSS, Genjutsu – N/A, Taijutsu – S, Kenjutsu – N/A, Fuinjutsu – N/A, Bukijutsu – N/A.

Notes: Wielder of the Uzumaki Fuinkusari. Wielder of the Hyouton. Past information on the target is classified.

Bio: In a direct confrontation, the target was able to beat and absorb the Yondaime Mizukage, Mizu no Yagura, with little effort. Fate of the Sanbi unknown. Showing proficiency in Hyouton and Doton techniques, the target is noted to be incredibly difficult to beat.

Bounties: Kumogakure – 1000000 ryo Alive or Dead. Iwagakure – 200000 Dead, 500000 Alive.

Conclusion: Flee on sight.'

"Well, this is flattering." Naruto remarked.

Hiruzen sighed. "You single-handedly put yourself in the spotlight, something we have managed to avoid so far. The council is less than pleased. You are saved from a more gruesome fate from the fact that the Godaime Mizukage believes herself to be in your debt. So as to thank you in person, she has sent an invite for you and your team."

"She owes me nothing." Naruto stated, then took a moment to think about what he would say. "After I assimilated Momochi Zabuza and Yuki Haku, their most dominant personality traits were transferred to me – disposing of thee Yondaime Mizukage. In a way, I had no choice, since ignoring the thought would eventually see me separated from both their abilities."

Kakashi sighed, posture relaxing a bit on hearing this. So Naruto hadn't attempted to display his prowess purposefully, but still…

"I am not the one seeking an explanation, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen reminded him. "The council is-"

"The council can find itself another scapegoat. I was doing what I believed was best for myself, and in turn, the village." Naruto interrupted. "There is another matter I would like to bring to your attention – the identity of my parents."

Both elder men stiffened.

"I am aware that Uzumaki Kushina was my birth-mother. I formally demand the identity of my father, and his will read." Naruto said, standing.

"I… but Naruto-kun, I don't-"

"I am very well aware you know who my father is, Hokage-sama." Naruto said. Uncaring of propriety, he slid out of his hospital gown, and made way to his garments folded on the chair nearby.

The Hokage had averted his eyes, though Kakashi hadn't. After a few moments had passed, and Naruto was dressed, Hiruzen spoke, "Naruto-kun, it is not safe for you if I publicize just who your father is."

Naruto and Kakashi both turned to give Hiruzen a deadpan stare.

"That… that is to say-"

"I have an inkling of who my father can be." Naruto admitted, turning to stare out the window at the Hokage monument. "Jinchuuriki are best chosen close to the kage's family, in order to strengthen their loyalty to their village. Uzumaki Kushina was a Jinchuuriki, and there is only one eligible entryway into the ruling family during her time, since the Yondaime was an orphan. One would truly be a fool not to notice the resemblance I share with him. What does that say about your village then? They look at my father's face every day, multiple times a day, yet fail to make the connection. From the bingo book, even Kumogakure and iwagakure have made something of a connection with a blurry picture of me. How would my father react in the afterlife, knowing you are purposely keeping his legacy from me?"

Hiruzen pulled his pipe out of his mouth and rubbed his eyes with his other hand. "Naruto, the political repercussions-"

"I care not for your village politics, Hokage-sama." Naruto scoffed, turning around. "I wish to formally demand that the Yondaime Hokage's will be read publicly."

"Naruto-"

"This is not a debate." Naruto said, crossing his arms. "While I hold little love for them, they were my parents, and it is well within my rights to ask that my father's be carried out and their treasures bequeathed to me in recompense for the treatment I have suffered under your rule. If my… requests… are not seen to, I will have no choice but to approach the Daimyo of HI no Kuni."

Hiruzen, who had flinched multiple times during Naruto's speech, finally heaved a sigh at the end. "Very well. I will summon the council at the earliest-"

"Now, Hokage-sama." Naruto insisted. "They wish for answers, I will give it to them. My mother's Will should be read during the council meet, and my father's over the village-wide radio broadcast. Immediately thereafter."

Hiruzen gazed at the boy he had failed, and simply walked out of the room.

"That was harsh, Naruto-kun." Kakashii said, but there was no reprimand in his voice. "Still, I believe it is something he deserves."

Naruto's eyes zeroed in on Kakashi's single visible one. Walking closer, he asked, "Your body language screamed betrayal before I explicitly stated the reason why I went after the Yondaime Mizukage. Why?"

Kakashi sighed. "I believed you were displaying your powers in order to intimidate-"

"You are lying." Naruto said, coming to a stop in front of Kakashi. Perhaps it was assimilating all those people, but his height had increased, and he came up to just below Kakashi's shoulders.

"I was worried." Kakashi admitted, eyes boring into Naruto's. "You slept for so long! I was worried that fighting Yagura and assimilating him had had adverse effects."

Naruto was silent, then slowly reached up with one hand. Kakashi caught his Naruto's hand before it could reach his mask.

"Naruto?"

The boy in question remained silent, and simply reached forward, uncaring of Kakashi's hand which was more of a gentle touch than a restraint, and pulled his mask down to his neck. He then reached upwards and pushed the older man's headband up to get an unobstructed view of his face.

"Arigatou, Koinu." Naruto whispered, then stood on his tiptoes and pressed a chaste kiss to Kakashi's lips.

The man froze, before his brain forced him into action. He grabbed Naruto's waist and deppened the gesture, applying some force from his own side.

They pulled away from the tender moment a few minutes later, and just in time, since an Anbu was suddenly perched on the windowsill.

"The Hokage requests your presence, Naruto-san." The man wearing a mantis mask said.

Naruto sighed and stepped away from Kakashi's embrace. The ANBU respectfully averted his gaze when Kakashi made way to fix his mask, but Naruto's hand froze him.

"Allow me to say this, Koinu." Naruto whispered. "Your father was a hero. Money and reputation mean little in the long run if your life in extinguished in the first place. If these blind sheep cannot see that, it is they who should wear a blindfold. Let go of your shame, for it is invalid. Do not dishonor your father this way, the villagers have done enough of that."

When Naruto left a stunned Kakashi behind to step into a Makyo Hyousho, the mantis ANBU agent smiled behind his mask. Before he shushined away.

Naruto appeared in the council chambers, and the ice mirror dissipated into miniscule ice shards which melted. He noted that the council, which included the Hokage's advisors, the clan heads, and the civilian representatives, was already present in full strength.

"Now that the accused is present, the council is now in session." Hiruzen intoned, sounding emotionless. "Before we move on to the more obvious, is there any other matters that must be brought to attention?" When none raised their hands, he continued, "Then this meeting will be solely focused on genin Uzumaki Naruto. The accused, please step forward."

Naruto did so without complaint.

"Genin Uzumaki Naruto, you hereby stand accused of the murder of the kage of another hidden village, capturing of another tailed beast that was not assigned to us, and abandoning mission parameters on a C-rank escort mission that turned into an S-rank Protection detail. What say you in your defense?"

"Pardon me, Hokage-sama," Aburame Shibi interrupted, "but I believe I misheard you. An S-rank Protection Detail?"

"Our mission evolved due to misinformation from our client." Naruto answered in the Hokage's stead. "Allow me to elaborate. Or given mission objective was the simple escort of a bridge builder named Tazuna from Konohagakure to his minor civilian village in Nami no Kuni. He filed to mention that the famous business magnate, Gatou, was after his life. Said man sent in two chunin level nukenin, the demon brothers Gozu and Mezu whose bounty I have claimed directly by proxy of our Hokage-sama, and A-rank nukenin Momoch Zabuza with his protégé Yuki Haku. Under duress, my Uzumai Fuinkusari assimilated them both after my team-mates Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura were rendered unconscious by Yuki Haku, a weilder of the Hyouton."

"Why have you not claimed Momochi Zabuza's bounty as well?" asked Akimichi Chouza, smiling. "It is only deserved, after all."

"Due to their high power levels, we could not risk their abilities falling into enemy hands. We burned them to the last cell."

"A wise decision." Nara Shikaku commented.

Naruto nodded his head in gratitude. "In any case, I plead not guilty to those accusations, and would ask to be allowed a chance to explain exactly how so."

"Permission granted." Said Hiruzen, who was more flustered by what would come to pass after this 'hearing'. One Shimura Danzo noted this with an intrigued countenance.

"Yondaime Mizukage Mizu no Yagura was a dictator who was leading a crusade against weilders of kekkei-genkai. His own village was in a state of civil war. As such, during a civil war, his title of Kage was moot. I am also informed that the Godaime Mizukage has expressed gratitude of my actions, and thus should negate this matter entirely."

"Be that as it may," Hyuuga Hiashi spoke, eyes narrowed, "the act of murder was still carried out on a shinobi from another village."

"True enough, Hyuugan-san." Naruto agreed. "But alas, I have not a brother to sacrifice in my stead in the name of maintaining order."

The Hyuuga balled his fists but said nothing.

"The accusation of me capturing a tailed beast is also moot, since the Sanbi no longer exists." Naruto continued, ignoring Inazuka Tsume's smirk of approval. "When I assimilated Mizu no Yagura, I assimilated the Sanbi no Kyodaiame, named Isobu, as well. Currently, his chakra has fused with Kyuubi-sama, and is impossible to separate. Since the Shodaime Hokage declared Kyuubii-sama as property of Konohagakure no Sato, Isobu is now officially a part of Konohhagakure as well."

At this point Danzo spoke. "Are you saying your kekkei-genkai is effective even on tailed beasts?"

"Indeed, Shimura-sama." Naruto nodded. "However, this example shows that the bijuu I will assimilate will fuse with Kyuubi-sama, and relinquish its personality entirely."

There was silence as everyone present pondered over that tidbit of information. Most were imagining a scenario wherein Naruto had assimilated all of the bijuu, and had mxied feelings about the prospect.

"As for the last allegation, our primary directive was to ensure Tazuna's protection. This was accomplished the moment I eliminated Gatou, his men, and his base." Naruto spoke.

Hiruzen nodded. "I have heard of this and can personally attest to it being true. Jounin sensei Hatake Kakashi has confirmed this fact."

"Then these were baseless accusations submitted to waste the council's time." Inazuka Tsume said, standing up. "If we're done here-"

"Pardon me, Inazuka-sama, but there is another matter to be addressed." Naruto said, folding his hands behind him. "I accuse Yamanaka Inoichi of tampering with my memory at a young age."

All was silent for three seconds, until everyone began speaking at once.

"Impossible!" said Tsume.

"He's better than that!" said Kurama Jin.

"No way!" said civilian council member Haruna Ichigo.

"Silence!" Hiruzen intoned, and all snapped their mouths shut, save for those like Danzo and SHibi who put themselves above such behavior, and Inoichi, Chouza and Shikaku who were stunned at the accusation.

"Yamanaka Inoichi acted on my orders to ensure Naruto's loyalty to the village." Hiruzen spoke, drawing gasps from most present. "Any blame of the situation falls to me."

"Then you will not be able to refuse me, Hokage-sama." Naruto said, then smirked. "I hereby formally demand Yamanaka Hijutsu scrolls in direct recompense, and that you read my father's, Namikaze Minato's, will in public."

This time, even Shibi joined in on the uproar.


	9. Obituary: Delusions

Sarutobi Asuma was less than pleased.

To start with, he had woken up early in the morning without much sleep, leaving him qute disgruntled for the rest of the day. Sleep was incredibly important for this man, as was relaxing, and any lack thereof produced an irritated edge to the fuuton user. As such, he left his apartment feeling quite agitated.

Then, when he collected his particularly crabby team and made way to the Missions Office so he could get that day's mission out of the day, he noted that Kurenai was already out of the village on a week-long C-rank protection detail in a nearby civilian village, thus making him incapable of spend time with her to 'cool off'.

However, there was a certain tidbit to peak his interest.

"You might want *cough* to get that out of the *cough* way before 12 p.m. *cough* *cough* There's to be an *cough* important announcement on *cough* *cough* the radio today at that *cough* *cough* *cough* time, and everyone is being *cough* encouraged to *clears throat* drop their tasks and *cough* *cough* *cough* *cough* listen. *cough*" coughed Gekko Hayate, chuunin of Konohagakure. On his side, his old teammate orphan Tokara seemed to lower his head, and Asuma was quick to spy said person's hands balled into fists. His stature of that of self-imposed anger.

Why would he be angry at himself on hearing that there was going to be an announcement?

Gurisu Tokara, a ninja of civilian origin, was quite a controlled shinobi, a far cry of a change from his younger days. As such, he was famed for always controlling his emotions. Well, being on a team with Morino Ibiki was bound to do that to anyone, Asuma mentally chuckled.

But such… ferocity… could only hint at one thing – Tokara was angry at himself for letting something obvious slip through his gaze. It was the only thing anyone had seen him express any emotion for. Many of his fellow shinobi had actually shown concern that he was repressing his emotions far too much than what was healthy.

Shelving the idea, believing he would have his answers at noon anyway, Asuma stalked out of the office with his team in tow. Both Ino and Choji had picked up that something was amiss with their sensei, and Shikamaru… well, it was safe to say that he had already comprehended it, and simply believed it too troublesome to investigate.

Asuma was concerned about Ino. Approximately a week ago, the Yamanaka heiress had had a rather jarring nudge to her ideologies, after all.

"Heya there, forehead!" Ino yelled, jogging up to a familiar pink-haired girl. He would recognize that hair anywhere, even if it was longer than before now. The blonde simply smirked as she thought that Sakura was attempting to mimic her. The pinkette had tried to walk in her shadow for the longest time after all.

A pinkette who wasn't even heeding her call anymore.

Ino frowned. "Hey, forehead! Hold up!"

Only to see no change. Even the passersby were looking at her now. Sakura was making her look stupid!

"Sakura!"

That got her attention. The girl stopped and turned around with a confused expression on her face. "Good morning, Ino-san. How are you?"

Ino stuttered for a moment due to the civil tone Sakura employed, as opposed to the sneer and haughty tone she would normally adopt, and toned down her previously planned exuberant display of superiority. "'M great and ev'rythin', but what's on with you? Ya goin' deaf or somethin'?"

"No, baka." Sakura smoke, smiling innocently. "I answered you the moment I heard my name, didn't I?"

"But-" Ino began, then stopped when she realized that, indeed, her first choice of term to refer to Sakura as was 'forehead' rather than her own actual name – something that Sakura had felt wildly insecure about since she was small and caused Ino to defend and befriend her. Even if they crushed on the same boy and separated because of it, why would Ino devolve to essentially being what she had protected Sakura against earlier? Was her personality that shallow, or was it simply the universe's way of posing them as a 'rival' for each other?

Little did she know; but in some other dimension, a man with the last name Kishimoto sneezed.

"Aw hell, sorry 'bout that, gurl." Ino said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "Anyway, I haven't seen ya in ages! Whatchu been upto?"

Sakura shrugged, but smiled truly this time, mind pulling up old memories of when she and INo would talk like they were the only people in the world. How long ago was that, now? "Nothing much. I've been on a few missions, raised my genjutsu level. I've also begun to dabble in Iryojutsu a bit, at least with what's available in the Ninja Library. You?"

"Nuthin' new, bein' honest. Pawpaw has been tryin' to hammer in them clan techniques into my skull, and it ain't fun, I tell ya! Nuthin' more borin' than trynta memorize a bajillion books on how ya mind is or ain't workin' right to grasp the basics." Ino sighed, folding her hands and cocking her hips to one side. "Well, at least I ain't a noob when I comes to shinobiyorujutsu – Asuma-sensei's been yamerin' about how it's been the most used of all ninja technique types out there, but I ain't buyin' it. I reckon he's tryin' ta motivate Shikamaru, but I'm getting minced in the process, since Choji is based 'round Taijutsu anyway."

"Well, he is right." Sakura spoke, seemingly thoughtful. "Genjutsu and Ninjutsu both had comparatively higher chakra costs, and thus more liable to exhaust their users in combat. All the three of you come from clans that not only need to employ discretion in their jutsu, but also have an amazing capability to work from the shadows – literally, in Shikamaru's case. How would you fare if the enemy was fast enough to dodge your SHintenshin or, in Choji's case, was capable of repelling or redirecting his Baika no jutsu? You guys may try best strike from the shadows. Both you and Shikamaru have techniques that one can use in assassination too."

Ino was… less than pleased by that assessment. "Whuteva, it ain't like anything won't reflect mah luv fo' Sasuke-kun anyway."

Sakura simply sighed and rolled her eyes.

The Yamanaka narrowed hers. "Who you tryn' ta sass, gurl? Have you already sunken yer harpy claws into mah Sasuke-kun, that it?" Ino fumed, fists clenching.

The Haruno famiy member seemed stunned for all of a moment, before she burst into abrupt and loud laughter. It was so loud, in fact, that it gave everyone within a five hundred meter radius quite a start.

"Whatso funny, you-"

"I'm laughing at the fact that I once was like that, like you."

Ino was the one stunned this time. "Wh- what?"

"Like you!" Sakura said, losing all of the mirth that was on her face and in her tone. "To become so obsessed with a boy that you neglect doing the bare minimum. To be or, in my case, try to be vain. To alienate who was once a friend," at this point Ino could spot unshed tears glinting in Sakura's eyes, "simply in the pursuit of said person! Yeah, both of us instigated this equally, but we could have stopped this stupidity at any time! I'm both amused and disgusted that I was like how you are now for even the shortest while."

"N- now wait a minute-"

"I have nothing to say to you, Yamanaka-san, unless you find out why you want to be a kunoichi, with a response other than, 'Because Sasuke-kun is a shinobi." Then, the civilian-origin kunoichi simply turned and walked away, internally feeling a million times lighter.

Asuma smirked. He'd been planning to have that talk with Ino soon, but he wanted it to come from someone else who the girl knew for longer and thus wouldn't discount the opinion of. And indeed, after that day, Ino was growing to be what one would call the 'slave driver', forcing the team onto longer and more intense practices than ever before, and maybe even demanding more than Asuma. Her teammates were less than pleased and made that plenty known, but went along with it because they knew it would help they career as ninjas. When Shikamaru complained something was too troublesome, Ino would point out that it was "be'er to do it now than leave it fo' later", and Choji could be tempted with a packet of crisps.

It took a long time for Asuma to realize that it was already jut before and the trees were already cut from the clearing.

Asuma led their way to their favorite restaurant for a meal, and was about to order before the restaurant owner shushed everyone and turned the radio volume up.

"Good afternoon, citizens of Konoha!" sounded the overly chipper voice of the jockey of Hi no Kuni's official radio, who was lovingly nicknamed Mewakuna Shin'aina (annoying dear) "Today, as you may know, besides the unusually low temperatures for this clear day of May, at 19 degrees with experts suggesting a lower number at night, the other thing that stands out today is that our beloved Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen-sama wished to make an announcement! Here he is now, with us in the Hamusen (Leaf Radio) building!"

 **"Thank you, Akiro-kun."** Hiruzen said, sounding weary however. **"I am here today to correct a mistake, something I believed I was doing for the best, but was proven hilariously wrong by the entirety of my village, Konohagakure."**

"Was it the commercial tax reform act of 96AN?"

 **"Not anything no benign. Allow me to finish before you speak, Akiro-kun."** The Hokage chided gently. **"Today, I am here to disclose an important fact, and read one document – both of them contain information I should not have withheld."** There was rustling of papers heard, before he spoke again. **"I will now read the last will and testament of Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, as it has been done for every Kage and figure of prominence since the founding of the village."**

There was pin-drop silence in the restaurant. His sleep was a thing of the past the moment he heard his grandfather's repentant tone, and Asuma coud spot even his genin showing interest.

 **"I, Namikaze Minato, of sound body and mind hereby fuse my chakra into this scroll to update with my last wishes on the moment of my death in all awareness. In no way am I being coerced, manipulated, or emotionally blackmailed.**

 **To my wife, Uzumaki Kushina, I leave behind our cottage by the shores of Lake Engetsu, which should be obvious since she is indeed my beloved wife and partner. I also leave behind, in her possession, a copy of the designs for my master Hiraishin seal, since our chakras bear a close enough signature for her to utilize it.**

 **To my mentor, Dansetsu no Jiraiya, I leave behind a copy of my original notes and calculations on the Hiraishin, in hopes that he finally convinces Fukusaku-sama to include it as a signature technique of the toad summoning clan.**

 **To my student, Hatake Kakashi, I leave behind a copy of my development notes on the Rasengan in hopes that he will be able to push it to its final stage. Do well, and prosper, but don't overwork yourself.**

 **As a general statement, I implore all of the above to... take care of my son, and nurture him well. I am certain the village will see him as a hero one day, and a hero does need sidekicks after all! Teach him well, everyone!**

 **And thus, I come to my final clause. To my son, I leave behind all of my original notes and scrolls, and the Namikaze legacy. The Sandaime Hokage, will be able to explain to you further. I am sorry for leaving you so suddenly, but I am sure there has to have been a very good reason. Being an orphan, I realize what not having a father can do to you, but you will, at least, have your mother, a doting uncle, a close friend, and an entire village worth of people to love you and care for you! How could you want for me in any fashion?**

 **If you still find yourself missing or wanting to be close to me, I have come to respect the amount of emotional impact being at the Memorial Stone in the graveyard can offer.**

 **Do me proud, Namikaze Naruto, first ever heir to a Namikaze clan."**

There was shocked silence. Almost all of the patrons, who were getting misty eyed hearing such words from a man they requested so much, froze in various positions, widened their eyes, or had their jaws open.

"I… I beg your pardon Hokage-sama, but are you saying that Yondaime-sama had a son with Uzumaki Kushina? And he was… Uzumaki Naruto?"

 **"That is exactly what I am saying. Reading this will was Naruto's wish as a descendant of blood, and yet his primary concern was me revealing his parentage to, in his words, 'the people who have afforded him such amazing care in his childhood' and 'have spat on their former leader's legacy'."**

"Bu- but we didn't know! Surely if we did-"

 **"I will not argue this with you, since you will defend these people. I have never been more ashamed of being a Kage, and I doubt any Kage has felt the way I have felt. Regardless, let me rephrase the crux of the matter – when the Kyuubi was sealed into Naruto, it was with his own fathers dying breath, since one cannot kill a bijuu, and he desired to protect the lot of you. I insisted on being the one who did so, due to my age, but he simply commented it would not be his right to wear the hat if he shirked his duties for such a silly reason.**

 **In return, you shunned his child. Naruto grew up without parents, but even orphans are subject to love and acceptance. Naruto had neither since he was barely a day old. In spite of that, he maintained an aura of exuberance and positivity. In spite of me placing a law that expressly forbade people to speak of the Kyuubi incident at all, the members of the previous generation all but ensured Naruto was alone by passing on their ridiculous and frankly shameful views onto their children. They in turn treated Naruto like trash, when he would have sworn on his head to never do anything malicious to anyone in this village, or offer anything in recompense simply to not have someone look at him with hate… In fact… I seem to recall a talk show on this very station when you called on unimportant ninja during the battle and asked them to express their feelings of the event… on his birthday. The result was an apartment fire in the Red Light district. Would you like to know the injured count? It was one, because all the residents of the building had cleared out. Venture a guess as to who the injured was?**

 **Let me make one thing perfectly clear, my love for this village was ever high during the time of the previous Kage's. If anyone even hinted at the fact that the citizens of Konohagakure could treat a child the way you lot have treated Naruto, I would have laughed in their face.**

 **Now, if someone says all the people of Konohagakure are inherently good and were simply swayed by their Yondaime's sacrifice, I would laugh in their faces, and ask 'what people?'"**

Silence. Not even birds outside the restaurant chirped anymore. It felt as if the world had come to a standstill, that even the very land itself was ashamed of them for what had come to pass.

 **"Before I leave, allow me to make further announcements. In light of their inability to ensure the safety of an orphan, and thus a civilian, and saw him susceptible to abuse, the civilian council is hereby disbanded.**

 **You may observe several citizens of Konoha vanish or be escorted by ANBU forcefully to the Torture and Interrogation department after I finish taking part in this broadcast. All stores who have charged any citizen of Konoha, civilian or Ninja, unfair amounts and/or turned them away due to unjust reasons, will have to pay a fine of seventy-five percent of their yearly profit once. I would put a punishment in place when someone attacks Naruto himself, but after knowing what he is capable of, I will be more than happy to allow him to handle them himself. For further information and dissuasion from actually believing you can do anything beyond hurting yourself or suicide by attacking him, read the S-Class section of the Bingo Book Version F."**

Silence seemed to have a uniform presence throughout the village.

Naruto, smiled a sad smile, eyes closed. He felt a single lone tear trail down his cheek. The single boring part of his plans for Konohagakure was over and done, informing the populace exactly why he was going to do what he did. Although he believed they weren't worth the effort, killing them wouldn't be nearly as satisfactory otherwise.

He stood, carrying the portable radio he had brought along for this very occasion. He wiped the wet trail, and opened his eyes, looking up at the sky. Feet on the arch-like structures of the Hokage Building, he tossed the radio up into the air and caught it, repeatedly and absent-mindedly, thinking of his next moves.


End file.
